But then the douchebags moved in with they're brilliant "what we lose per customer we make up in volume" philosophy.
Making up in volume they definitely did.
One could have said the same about Netflix and Spotify. The key point is to find a monthly fee that is low enough to get masses of people subscribing, but high enough that the masses of 1-movie-a-month ordinary users support the 30-movies-a-month power users - or to cap the "power user" limit at something reasonable.
The other thing would be to gain value from the users beyond the subscription, for example by having them rate the movies they see or giving out boni (=one high quality review gets you two extra visits even if you hit the cap).
MoviePass _may_ have been a sane venture if they rented out the theatres for MoviePass specific screenings at a flat rate then tried to make a margin on filling those seats up enough. As it is they resold a thing from one company to consumers at a price below the consumer's standard price while trying to convince theatres to honor the passes by rebating the theatres well below standard fare price.
Would you like to buy a coke from a merchant for 2$? What if I could sell you a subscription to buy as many cokes as you'd like for free for a 29$ monthly fee, while offering the merchant 1.50$ per sold item - oh and the transaction would still take place in the store... and be run by the shop owner... they'd just make less money - but hey maybe my subscription will end up selling more coke than the merchant would normally sell - but wait if that happens I lose money, so I only end up making money here if both of you are screwed because I'm essentially trying to make money shaving it off of a transaction that was already taking place.
MoviePass was so ridiculously stupid[2].
1. The price off of Amazon to purchase the season in CAD
2. Props to college humor on a great mock of their business and CEO, worth a watch if you want a laugh.
How would this work for WeWork though? If someone rents the space, WeWork can't rent it out to someone else. And this is work. People are going to show up on most days - unlike gym memberships.