MoviePass Reportedly Changed Customers’ Account Passwords To Stop Users From Seeing Movies

MoviePass reportedly changed account passwords to prevent users from seeing films

iStockphoto / thanasus


A scathing new report alleges that MoviePass purposely and maliciously changed users’ passwords to prevent customers from seeing popular movies. MoviePass, which was originally a $10-a-month all-you-can-view movie service, struggled after their preposterous business model was starting to hemorrhage cash.

Business Insider is reporting that the once-popular subscription movie service MoviePass changed customers’ passwords so they wouldn’t be able to see films in theaters, especially highly anticipated movies such as Avengers: Infinity War and Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

According to former employees of MoviePass, they claim that the company’s CEO, Mitch Lowe, instructed them to change the passwords of some of their customers who utilized the service too often. A small percentage of the MoviePass “power users” had their passwords changed and then their accounts locked during the weekends of massive blockbuster movies debuted to prevent them from seeing the eagerly awaited screenings.

RELATED: With MoviePass On Its Deathbed, Twitter Mercilessly Drags The Flailing Movie Service

Lowe reportedly ordered his employees to freeze the accounts of heavy use customers for the weekend of big movie titles. Then through social media, the company told users that they could access the app due to a technical error.

MoviePass, which is owned by Helios & Matheson Analytics, suddenly started killing the app for all users. The company had a “trip wire” that would be an automatic shutdown mechanism for all users that would automatically activate if MoviePass went past a certain amount balance. Once the money ran out, customers would receive the message: “There are no more screenings at this theater today.”\\

The MoviePass website says that “big changes are coming.”

“For the past several months, MoviePass has been working hard to improve our groundbreaking subscription service to ensure it meets the vision that we have for it,” the site says. “We are temporarily not accepting new subscribers as we work on these improvements.”

RELATED: Best MoviePass Alternatives

[IGN]