Insider:

MoviePass, the troubled movie-ticket-subscription service that shut down in 2019, is planning a comeback.

Stacy Spikes, the MoviePass founding CEO, announced during an event on Thursday that the service would relaunch this summer.

Spikes said that the goal is for MoviePass to be responsible for 30% of movie-ticket sales nationwide by 2030.

HELL YEAH, I loved MoviePass! Let’s burn more capital funds for free movies!

Vice:

The new MoviePass is leaning into all the latest Silicon Valley buzzwords—web3, wallets, and play to earn schemes. Spikes—wearing the standard black turtleneck, jeans, and tennis shoes associated with Steve Jobs and Elizabeth Holmes—announced that MoviePass is moving towards a system where people watch ads to earn virtual currency that they then spend on movies.

“It’s a way to close that loop and make it far more efficient of a system," Spikes said. “I want to be able to see it for free. Advertisers have put a pre-show together not unlike what you’d normally see when you go to a movie theater but this is customized for you."

Spikes said that all of this will happen locally on the users phone. “Part of the direction we’re doing from a web3 perspective is, this is happening only on your phone, uniquely to you, and the credits that are earned are your credits that go into your virtual wallet that you get to spend," he said. “So it’s your own money."

The new MoviePass will also use your phone's cameras to make sure that you’re actually watching the ads. “As I’m looking at it, it’s playing back. But if I stop and I’m not paying attention to it, it actually pauses the content," Spikes said while watching an ad during the presentation. “We had an early version of this where you know what happened. People put the phone down and left and didn’t pay any attention to it. Right now 70 percent of video advertising is unseen. This is a way that advertisers get the impact they’re looking for but you’re also getting the impact yourself."

Spikes described a world in which people could purchase products advertised to them directly through the MoviePass app and earn more credits towards free films. He also said MoviePass will open up some of the company to equity investment from members. Buy a big enough stake in the company and you earn benefits, including a lifetime membership.

Oh holy fucking shit no