Mark Wahlberg Producing MoviePass Documentary

Mark Wahlberg is producing a documentary series about the rise and fall of MoviePass. 2020 had theater fans nostalgic for the cinema service and its heyday. Deadline reports that the star’s Unrealistic Ideas will help bring the wild story to households. Wahlberg previously chronicled McMillions, a docuseries about the controversies surrounding McDonald’s annual Monopoly game. Journalist Jason Guerrasio’s reporting about the MoviePass debacle serves as the source text for the project. He chronicled how a company can go all-in on getting as many consumers as possible and then fail to turn an adequate profit. Then, in the resulting chaos basically alienate that entire user base with somewhat questionable decision-making. In fact, you will probably see similar approaches to the Gamestop Stock story later down the line.

Producers explain, “Employing a sexy price to turbo-charge subscriber growth, the investors who took over the company sought the rapid success experienced by high-flying startups like WeWork and Uber. But through over-the-top parties, inexplicable mismanagement, and questionable behind-the-scenes deals, the new leadership of MoviePass slowly alienated its customers and shuttered its service just two years after its surge into the zeitgeist.”

When the company fell on hard times, chief executive Mitch Lowe told Variety that they were in this thing for the long term.

“We have a lot to prove to all our constituents,” Lowe explained. “We don’t just have to prove ourselves to our members, we also have to prove ourselves to the investment community, our employees, and our partners. We believe we’re doing everything that we possibly can to deliver a great service and we’re in the process of fixing all the things that went wrong.”

Then when things inevitably went off a cliff, the CEO had to put out a statement apologizing to users for the apps increasingly strange rules and eventual shuttering.

“There’s never a good time to have to do this,” Lowe said in a statement from 2019. “But to complete the improved version of our app, one that we believe will provide a much better experience for our subscribers, it has to be done.”

“We have listened and we understand the frustrations of our subscribers,” he continued. “To provide the level of service you deserve and we can be proud of, we need to improve our mobile app. We plan to make this improvement by utilizing an enhanced technology platform, which is in the final stages of completion,” he continued.

Would you watch a MoviePass docuseries? Let us know down in the comments!