MoviePass, the movie subscription service, has received a new equity investment from Comcast’s Forecast Labs.
The investment from Forecast Labs, which is the consumer venture group within Comcast NBCUniversal, will be used for TV advertising to drive new customer acquisition for MoviePass. The financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.
The news comes as MoviePass claims it hit its first profitable year in the company’s history, in 2023, after filing for bankruptcy in 2020. After initially launching in 2011, the service lowered its price to $9.95 a month in 2017, as Helios and Matheson bought a majority stake in the company and took control.
The subscription allowed members to see one film per day, and caused a surge in popularity, before the lopsided economics of the prospect caused the service to file for bankruptcy.
The service was reacquired by its co-founder Stacy Spikes in 2021. Its trajectory was the subject of the HBO documentary MoviePass, MovieCrash.
In recent years, the company said its growth has been driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning enhancements, which it says has helped create better marketing opportunities for studios and theaters and helped its consumers work within its new business model, which assigns a certain number of credits based on the title and the time and date of the showing and help find lower cost titles.
“Today’s investment will accelerate our mission to bring new technology and innovation to the film community that will spur growth and drive higher traffic to theaters,” Spikes said. “We are also continuing to invest in the development of our cinematic marketplace so that studios and partner theaters can see maximum value by engaging directly with movie fans on the platform.”
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