MoviePass is making a comeback. The timing couldn’t be worse.

Spikes plans to resume service on “or around September 5,” according to its website. Details are scarce, but the company says the new MoviePass will have three price tiers, costing $10, $20 or $30, depending on the market.

In the year Before being pushed out in 2018, Spikes helped found MoviePass after it sold the company to the now-defunct analytics firm Helios & Matheson. He held a presentation in New York in February, during which he announced the reboot and acknowledged that “a lot of people lost money, a lot of people lost trust,” after MoviePass went belly-up.

Rebuilding trust is just one of the many challenges MoviePass will face as it returns in the coming weeks.

Many movie theater plans, not many movies

One of the biggest ways is that MoviePass is coming back at the worst possible time.

Consumers today may have a bit of subscription fatigue considering the streaming services and other bundles they pay for. Not to mention four decades of high inflation, causing many Americans to be wary of reckless purchases, such as going out to the movies.

Even for those with money to spend on something like MoviePass, the movie market is very different than it was the last time the company was around.

Domestic box office is down 31% this year compared to the same point in 2019 before the outbreak. That’s a lot better than 2021, but still not a return to “normal.”

If the point of MoviePass is to let moviegoers see more movies for less, the service only makes sense if more movies are seen.

“Dreams are the stuff they’re made of.”

In the year In the summer of 2017, MoviePass caught fire with users with an irresistible “too good to be true” offer: $10 to see one movie a day for an entire month.

The service quickly grew to 3 million subscribers in less than a year. But MoviePass’ business model was unsustainable at best — and non-existent at worst.

The company burned through cash and closed two years after the explosion at the site.

Now it’s back, and the question around Hollywood is: Will MoviePass and its new leadership finally make it to Hollywood? Can he create a lasting business that could change the face of film forever?

Time will tell, but so far the story of MoviePass is less “show me the money” and more “the stuff dreams are made of.”