I have no idea how they thought this would work out.
It’s no secret that MoviePass is in some spot of hot water; they have, after all, been whittling away at the value of a membership.
And so their CEO, Mitch Lowe, determined to keep the good ship afloat, is pulling out all of his tricks to do so. And one of those is to invest precious capital into productions, to establish the company as more than a ticket subsidy.
And while the idea is both sound and working to an extent (American Animals did well critically, though it wasn’t big earner) they decided investing in the John Travolta led Gotti.
Gotti is precisely the type of film we established MoviePass Ventures to support,” said Mitch Lowe, CEO of MoviePass. “We are helping boost traffic to these theaters for people to see these great films. This is an ambitious movie for which we’re thrilled to offer exclusive opportunities, such as exclusive tickets to the U.S. premiere event, word of mouth screenings and other Gotti related events, to our nationwide subscriber base.
MoviePass Press Release, from Business Wire
Now, to give you an idea as to how bad an idea this was, this film currently has a critic score on Rotten Tomatoes of 0%. And, to elaborate just how bad that it, I’ll drop the occasional quote and link to a stinky piece of cheese that’s somehow got a better score than Gotti. As demonstrated below:
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966): 7% Fresh (this is, ironically, soft pitch)
According to Recode, MoviePass just recently invested in the film. Gotti is a biopic about New York mafia don John Gotti. And holy shit, is it looking to be a box office bomb, on track to make less than a fifth of its production budget back.
There is, in fact, a finite list of films that share Gotti‘s rating. According to the New York Post “[Gotti] belongs in a cement bucket at the bottom of the river”, and dubs it the worst movie of all time.
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002): 4% Fresh (and the low bar for getting a Robot chicken sketch making fun of how bad it is)
That said, this may be a stupid, yet calculated move for MoviePass. If they can prove to their participating theaters that people are actually going to see this turd, that gives them a bit more pull with those chains, as well as bring more into the fold. It could be a calculated loss; which, at this point still winds up seeming an odd tactic.
But, to give you one last glimpse at the film, it was directed by Kevin Connolly. Whom you may remember as being the douchebag named “E” on Entourage, that show about a bunch of douchebags in Hollywood. Travolta’s performance is completely unable to save it, as he was in Battlefield Earth (2000) (3% Fresh). It spent seven years in development hell, and passed through a number of companies.
Shaq’s music career: unrated on Rotten Tomatoes, but well known to be shit
Here’s hoping this all pays off for MoviePass. At least in part because my boss recently bought a subscription.
Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000): 19% Fresh (sparkle sparkle *snort* uuuugghhh)
Source: Gizmodo
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[…] Lowe was pulling out all the tricks he knows to keep MoviePass afloat? And that somehow included buying a stake in what may be the worst movie of the year? A movie which, in an almost ironic twist given its subject matter, has allegedly gone about […]