Stacy Spikes
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could say, Wow, Stacy always goes to Tom’s film and he sees them opening night. And he has a blog and he tweets; he influences people to go. Suddenly, MoviePass becomes something that helps you get the word out with people who are already diehard moviegoers. If a studio wants to fill a word-of-mouth screening, MoviePass can help you put the right people in the seats rather than guessing. We don’t have to guess. We know.

EBONY: Exactly how much do you know about individual subscribers?

SS: We know people’s Klout Scores, or their social credit rating. Klout looks at number of friends, followers, [your online interactions and connections with content, all that, to decide how influential you are]. It’s pretty fascinating.

EBONY: In addition to the subscription service, your business hopes to turn a profit in part by selling ads.

SS: We have four customers: the theater, studio, customer and advertiser. When you sit in the theater today, before the movie you get stuff you don’t care about. Our ads target a fan by his interest in a particular film. Did you see A Good Day to Die Hard? It was a big Mercedes commercial. But Mercedes doesn’t know who went to see it. We do, and if ticket buyers express interest in a behind-the-scenes clip maybe they want to test-drive the car Bruce Willis drove. They might want to know about a vacation package to a Mercedes Driving School. You can’t do that today! With our service you can.

EBONY: You’re not doing this yet. This is what you’re building to.

SS: Right. This is a scale business. If you ask me, MoviePass is more like Google for moviegoing, than Netflix. The analytics is what makes the relationship between content creators and consumers gel. Two years ago there was no app to do this. Five years ago there was no phone. We’re at the right place at the right time to create something that can revolutionize our industry.

EBONY: And what did you think of the prediction by Lucas and Spielberg that movie tickets will cost $150?

SS: I was alarmed. I mean, somebody better fan me and feed me popcorn for $150. Personally, I think we’re in the midst of a rebirth. There’s a new group coming on line that’s used to social, movie-related merchandise and subscription models. These things are all swirling together. People say, give me the soundtrack, the graphic novel, the movie in theaters — and let me see it first because I’m loyal. Now a Legendary Pictures could say, “You saw every Dark Knight movie. You’re our people. You’re going to see the next one first.” [Holds up his phone with app] And this thing is going to determine who gets in the door. That’s power!