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The Final Nail in the Coffin of MoviePass

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MoviePass

We all saw this coming. MoviePass officially went out of business this weekend, marking the end of a very short life for the company. Earlier this year, it was reported that MoviePass subscribers had decreased by 90 percent after the company’s business practices turned out to be less than honest.

The Lifetime of the Business

Believe it or not, MoviePass made its debut in the marketplace in 2011. It did not rise to popularity until summer 2017 though. At that time, the company was offering unlimited movies each month for just $9.95. That wouldn’t buy a single movie ticket in most places, so it is no wonder the company blew up in terms of popularity. Upon announcing its pricing, subscriber numbers jumped from 15,000 to 3.2 million practically overnight. However, that price simply wasn’t sustainable for the business.

In less than one year after it debuted its services at this low price, the company began changing its offer without even alerting customers. Suddenly, you were limited in the number of movies you can view per month. Additionally, it began reopening closed or canceled accounts without the customer’s permission (talk about bad business practice).

Once theater chains like AMC and Regal saw the business failing, they began launching their own movie subscription services at more sustainable prices. Many of these also included family plans, which MoviePass never offered.

When the company went up for sale some pretty large investors showed interest, but no one bought in because the company was already so far gone. Fast-forward six months and MoviePass has shut its virtual doors for good.

What MoviePass Customers Can Do

If you were a customer, you may be wondering what’s next. The company has said it has not given up on looking for additional funding to keep the business running, but there are no sources currently available.

Company executives released a statement saying, “On September 13, 2019, MoviePass notified its subscribers that it would be interrupting the MoviePass service for all its subscribers effective September 14, 2019, because its efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date.”

It is a good idea to still keep an eye on your account. As mentioned above, MoviePass has done some less-than-savory things when it comes to closed accounts in the past. You will want to be sure you’re not continuing to be charged.

Previous customers have options, however. If you’re still interested in movie subscription services, there are a number of alternatives available. (See a list of alternatives here.)

Readers, are you surprised by MoviePass coming to an end? 

Photo: Flickr: jenvargas

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The Best Money Documentaries to Learn How Money Works

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learn how money works

I love to watch documentaries to learn more about a variety of different topics. There are many kinds of documentary films that are typically informative and entertaining. They range from following one individual’s experience to addressing a broad swath of social ills. Here is my list of the best money documentaries to learn how money works.

Documentaries to Learn How Money Works

There are a few good documentaries out there that help explain personal finance concepts. Not surprisingly, in this age of digital streaming, many of these are about hyper-modern issues such as cryptocurrency. While they may touch on individual lives and/or social issues, their overall benefit is in teaching the viewer the basic concepts of specific aspects of finance.

Maxed Out

This film provides a basic understanding of the negative impact credit cards can have on your life. I’m fairly comfortable with my knowledge about credit cards and debt. Nevertheless, it provided a good refresher.

Life and Debt

Maxed Out provides insight into the ways debt affects individuals. In contrast, Life and Debt explores how debt affects countries. If you are interested in international debt lending, then watch this film.

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

This was one of the first documentary movies that I ever watched about cryptocurrency. It provided me with a solid foundation for a better understanding of what this modern money is all about.

David Dreman, Contrarian Money Manager

If you feel like sometimes you get in your own way when it comes to investing your money, then you might want to learn more about market psychology. David Dreman is the person to teach you. His theories often go against the norm, which is precisely why you may learn something new from this documentary.

Time as Money: A Documentary Film About Time Banking

People today are hungry for connection. Time banking is a unique approach to connecting neighbors with one another. It’s a cashless network of trading services with one another. If you’re interested in learning more about this unique approach to reducing dependence on money, then this documentary will teach you all that you need to know.

The Retirement Gamble

This PBS documentary provides insightful information to people who want to learn more about the financial aspect of retirement.

Documentaries About the History of Money

There are some films like the above that showcase specific techniques for personal finance. However, I often learn the most about personal finance from movies that provide a broad overview of the history of money. Some are general, whereas others are about specific niches.

Money & Life: A Story About Money that Will Change Your Life

Almost all of the documentaries I’ve seen about the history of money have a negative tone. This is the exception. It posits the question of whether a modern financial crisis can also be a beautiful opportunity. It looks at the history of money through this lens.

The Ascent of Money: From Bullion to Bubbles

This film puts today’s issues into better perspective for me. This film examines 500 years of financial history around the world. It does a particularly good job of illuminating the early days of the modern banking system.

The End of Poverty?

This is a powerful examination of the history of poverty in developing nations. It looks back across time and examines the inequity of power and money.

Money Art: An Uneasy Alliance

One of the aspects of money that I personally have had the most trouble understanding is the financial value of art. It’s a complex issue, which this documentary addressed in depth. It explores a comprehensive history of the relationship between these two fundamental aspects of society. While I can’t say that I have any better knowledge of how to invest in art myself, after viewing the film, I do have a better understanding of the complexity of this unique niche of finance.

Frontline: The Untouchables, Money, Power and Wall Street

This is a 4-hour PBS Frontline investigation into banking and the Wall Stree bailout. Arguably, this is one of the money documentaries that could fall into the category of “socio-cultural.” However, its broad overview of the history of modern finance makes it particularly educational. If you find yourself sometimes baffled by Wall Street investing and want to learn more about how we got where we are today then check this one out.

Inside Job

I think the Frontline, as mentioned earlier documentary covers this same topic really well. However, Inside Job is the more popular documentary about it.

Socio-Cultural Money Documentaries

Some of my favorite money documentaries are those that look at socio-cultural issues through the lens of finance. We all know that money plays a huge role in everything from politics to prison reform, not to mention issues related explicitly to poverty and the income gap. It’s not the only issue, but it’s an issue that can’t be ignored. Here are the best of these documentaries:

Generation Wealth

This is one of my favorite movies about our societal fascination with wealth as well as the consumerism that results from it. Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield has done a number of projects about money and culture over the years. This is a culmination of that work. It’s an in-depth investigation into many aspects of what she’s studied before, touching on the intersection of money with body image and the beauty industry, workaholism, and, as Amazon Studios describes it in the YouTube trailer: “the human costs of capitalism, narcissism, and greed.”

Kids + Money

No mention of Generation Wealth should go without also highlighting one of Greenfield’s most powerful earlier works: Kids + Money. She interviews Los Angeles teens, ranging from the super-rich to those living in poverty, about the way that money affects their lives. It’s a short film, scarcely longer than half an hour. Yet, it is so powerful. Juxtaposing these different statements creates an overarching view of how money affects the trajectories of life for American kids.

Minimalism

This film is the antidote to Generation Wealth. It addresses similar issues of consumption. However, it does so through the lens of people who have chosen to forego that in favor of a minimalist lifestyle.

Freakonomics

If you’re interested in money’s impact on society, then you’ve probably already read this popular book. Have you seen the film? It applies economic theories to an examination of various aspects of our culture in a way that is accessible even if you don’t generally feel comfortable discussing economics.

Money Talks: Profits Over Patient Safety

If you are interested in learning more about the intersection of health care and money, then this is one of the money documentaries you’ll want to see. It digs into the various practices that pharmaceutical companies use to gain immense profits, potentially at the cost of individual health.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

If you’re fascinated by the role that money plays in 21st-century American politics, then you might want to watch this documentary. As described on the film’s website it is “a deep dive into the Republicans’ dark operation, Crosscheck” investigating “the billionaires behind this voting scam” including “top GOP donors, the billionaire known as “The Vulture” and the Koch brothers.” The film definitely comes from a particular perspective. In fact, they say on the site that the aim to “expose the darkest plans of the uber-rich to steal America’s democracy.” However, regardless of your political views, it shows some interesting information about the role money may play in elections today.

Documentaries About Individuals and Their Money

People and their money are so fascinating. Many of us love the opportunity to learn more about how very wealthy people acquire and spend their money. At the other extreme, we may be intrigued to see stories about people who live with as little as possible. Here are the best money documentaries about individuals:

James Simons: Money, Math, and Computers

James Simons is a mathematician and code-breaker. He’s also a billionaire investor, thanks in no small part to his unique use of algorithms to assist him in improving his investments. This documentary explores his career.

Unraveled

Yale and Harvard graduate and attorney Marc Dreier had a decent life. He wanted an even more lavish one. He ended up embezzling more than $400 million. This documentary is a discussion about the choices that lead him to that point, filmed as he awaits sentencing. This is one of those money documentaries that shows us the dark side of greed at an individual level.

Documentaries about Steve Jobs

There are so many different documentaries about the wealthy Apple founder. Watching several of them provides an interesting overview of his life. There’s no escaping that his money is a part of that life. Billion Dollar Hippy is probably the one that addresses that aspect most directly.

The Fabulous Life of Billion Dollar Wall Street Ballers

Remember The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? If you loved it, then this documentary is for you.

Born Rich

This slightly older (2003) documentary is almost a foreshadowing of the two aforementioned Greenfield films. It’s a look at the lives about one dozen heirs to a fortune. It’s also autobiographical; the documentarian is an heir to the Johnson and Johnson fortune. He’s exploring the experience of feeling silenced about his wealth. It’s a side of rich life we don’t often see examined. Notably, he followed this documentary with another called The One Percent.

Are there any money documentaries that I’ve missed and must check out? Let me know in the comments below!

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Should You Go to a Movie Based on Its Box Office Take?

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Go to a Movie

As people who monitor our spending very closely, many of our decisions are made based on numbers. Especially with regard to entertainment, for which our budget may be quite small.

At the time of this writing, the big entertainment news has been the box office disappointment of Solo: A Star Wars Story. It feels like the box office takings of the movie were discussed more than whether the film was any good.

Which raises the question: Should you base your movie-going decisions on box office stats? Short Answer: No. Even the long answer is essentially no.

Box office figures used to be of interest only to readers of Hollywood trade publications. Variety would collect the figures on movies rented by theaters, and would list the most popular movies rented by theaters in the largest cities.

It was only in 1981 that data was collected from all movie theaters, this time focusing on the box office — on what patrons around the country (and later, around the world) were paying to see movies.

This information became distributed in more mainstream publications, including newspapers.

Even as detailed film criticism was phased out of many newspapers (and film critics wound up on the internet, flooding the thing with endless movie reviews), that compact top ten box office list remained, offering quantitative data without taking up too many column inches.

Water Cooler Talk

The weekend grosses of movies became something we could easily access and talk about around the water cooler Monday mornings.

Combine that with the increasing dominance of the blockbuster mentality in Hollywood (and among the so-called indie studios), and you have a formula by which the most profitable movie appears to equal the best.

Your average Joe may be reluctant to offer an artistic opinion on a movie but may feel comfortable pointing at the hard data which suggests that millions of people went to a movie theater to enjoy the same experience he or she did.

Many viewers simply feel safer spending money to see a movie that everyone seems to be going to than to take a chance on something fewer people are talking about.

The Big Box Office “But”

But there are a mess of economic factors that figure into a movie’s box office grosses. Many big budget blockbusters have the advantage of tremendous studio backing, and will be booked into a large number of theaters worldwide.

Many screens in the same multiplex will offer the same movie, feeding the bigger-is-better notion (“It must be good if the ‘plex is showing it on three screens.”).

In small-town markets with only one or two neighborhood theaters, the latest blockbuster may be the only movie screening in town, and so it’ll sell a number of tickets to small-town viewers who want to see the latest movie on offer, regardless of what it is.

Big Splashy Action Movies

This kind of wide, shock-and-awe release will tend to be a big, splashy action movie, especially in the summer.

Effects-driven, highly visual movies have always been good business for Hollywood. The studios continue to chase big successes in the international markets, where they have an established and successful track record with bigger, louder movies featuring an emphasis on familiar characters, big action, and busy visuals.

And so mainstream theaters will be flooded with such movies during the summer blockbuster months.

What About Solo?

In the case of the aforementioned Solo: A Star Wars Story, it may have been that the studio miscalculated the interest in a movie based on the early days of one of the franchise’s earliest characters.

It has been booked on thousands of screens, and its marketing has been difficult to miss. If you want to see it, you’re in luck – it’s certainly playing at a theater near you, even if there’s only one movie theater in your town.

Which leaves us with the perplexing story that the new Star Wars movie is a flop financially. On paper the movie’s grosses — $150 million in its first three days – seem impressive (after all, that’s more money than most of us will see in our lifetimes).

What Flop?

But the main story emphasizes what a flop this movie has been: The previous Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, took $220 million in its first three days in just the U.S. and Canada; and Solo is only the seventh-highest Memorial Day opening for a movie.

Given the prominence in reporting of a movie’s financial success, words like “flop,” “disappointment,” and “undersold” create a misleading impression of inferior quality that has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the movie is any good.

The Transformers movies have made nearly $5 billion between them, but would you call them classics?

The discussion of box office grosses also ignores smaller movies. Foreign and independent films have nowhere near the theatrical distribution of the major blockbusters, and many of them could really use your ticket dollars to break even. (Many of them are more deserving of your ticket dollars, really.)

Your Favorite Movies Might Have Been “Flops”

Plus, movies become enshrined classics over time, often without the benefit of large box office dollars.

The Coen Brothers’ 1998 stoner comedy The Big Lebowski is one of the most-quoted and deeply beloved comedies of the last 20 years, a huge build from its initial box office take of $46.2 million.

 

The home videos outsold The Godfather, but Tommy Boy fizzled at the box office.

The Chris Farley and David Spade comedy Tommy Boy had even more modest box office revenues of $32.7 million in 1995.  But 10 years later its director Peter Segal was told by Paramount that the movie had outsold The Godfather on home video.

Paramount then put out a new disc for the movie, loaded with extras, which took its profile even higher.

And surely you or someone in your office can bust out a quote from 1999’s Office Space, a funny and evergreen movie that took in $12.2 million during its theatrical run.

So Where Should You Look?

If a movie’s box office taking isn’t a reliable indicator of a movie’s quality, what can you use instead?

Film Reviews

If your local paper doesn’t have a busy film critic or reviewer (or if that person sucks), there’s a bunch of great film writing on the web.

RogerEbert.com has many writers on staff who are continuing the tradition of clear, insightful, and useful film writing established by the late, great Chicago critic.

Rotten Tomatoes

The fresh or rotten binary is sometimes misleading, but Rotten Tomatoes isn’t a bad first stop for an overview on a movie. It includes excerpts of reviews, plus a fresh or rotten certification based on those reviews that will tell you if a majority of reviewers liked it.

Ask a Friend or Acquaintance

You’re sure to have a movie-mad friend who’d love to make recommendations. Just ask — straight up and spoiler-free — if the movie’s worth seeing.

Twitter

Every movie that comes out has people tweeting about it. You can either type the title into the search window or look for the hashtag for the movie (i.e. #Solo or #SoloAStarWarsStory).

This will get you to a mess of different opinions about the movie. If any particular person’s tweets about a movie feel right, are smart or amuse you, follow that person.

Even better, if you can find out the Twitter handle of a movie critic you dig, follow that profile for additional recommendations.

All of the above ideas will help you navigate your way through the summer movie season, when lots of flicks tend to generate big numbers because kids are out of school.

Just remember: bigger box office doesn’t automatically mean a better movie. And the little movie you take a chance on might turn out to be tomorrow’s classic. Happy viewing.

How seriously do you take a movie’s box office takings when considering a movie’s worth? Where do you go for movie recommendations? And which movies do you want to go see this summer?

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10 Fun Things That Are Cheaper Than a Swimming Pool

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Cheaper Than A Swimming Pool

The typical vision of a backyard oasis includes a swimming pool, but with an average price exceeding $23,000, many find it hard to make that vision a reality. But you can have fun for a lot less money: check out this list of 10 things that can be done in just about any backyard for less money.

Mega Water Slide

Kids and adults can cool off on hot summer days with a 75-foot water slide found on Amazon for $149.95.

Backyard Adventure Water Park

Nobody will complain about not having a swimming pool if they have their own water park. It comes with a giant beach ball, slide arches, obstacle beams and sprinkling palm tree.

The pieces have four-way connectors allowing any formation you can imagine. The Backyard Adventure Water Park is available from Amazon for $466.07.

Hammock

Swing to the gentle summer breeze in a hammock. Amazon sells a two-person hammock with a stand and sunshade for $219.99.

Giant Trampoline

Jumping on a giant trampoline is not only fun but great exercise. Walmart sells a 15-foot trampoline with a safety enclosure for $279.99 each.

Fire Pit

Enjoy summer nights around a fire pit in your backyard. Home Depot sells quality fire pit kits starting at $349. They include stones and a steel insert — so that your fire pit will last for years.

Bird Feeders

Watching colorful birds outside your window can relax and entertain you at the same time. Purchase a bird feeder station for $24.99 — and a set of two bird feeders for $17.99 from Amazon and you’ve created a new hobby for $42.98.

Garden

Spend the whole summer nurturing your own backyard vegetable and herb garden. Buy a seed kit from Amazon for $22.95 and harvest the benefits in the fall.

Volleyball Net

Set up your own volleyball court and invite your friends and neighbors over for a little friendly competition. Everything you need is included in a volleyball package from Walmart priced at $76.99.

Outdoor Movies

With an inflatable movie screen ($249.99) and wireless projector ($299.99) from Best Buy, you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood by hosting outdoor movies.

Backyard Camping

Treat your kids to a camping experience without leaving the yard: Put up a six-person tent from Target ($80.99), throw in as many pillows and blankets as you can find and sleep under the stars.

How About All of the Above?

Unbelievably, you could do all of the things listed for $2,238.89, which is still a fraction of the cost of a swimming pool.

Just imagine how much fun your backyard would be with all of these things in it — or at least more than one of them.

Readers, would you rather have a swimming pool or all of these things at a fraction of the cost?

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Elon Musk’s Younger Sister: Tosca Musk’s Net Worth

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Tosca Musk

How has Elon Musk spread his wealth among his family members? A look at his younger sister Tosca Musk’s net worth may shed light on that question. But focusing only on Tosca’s finances provides an incomplete picture of her accomplishments.

Tosca Musk’s Net Worth

Tosca’s net worth has been estimated as high as $169.4 million, which is only a modest figure if your last name is Musk — Elon has a net worth of $20.8 billion. Although her fortune comes to her through her family, she has put her money into her passions and forged her own path.

Although Tosca worked at Zip2 (the company founded by her brothers, the acquisition of which launched their fortune), she quickly left after the company was acquired to actively pursue a filmmaking career.

 

Film Career

Prior to her tech career, Tosca studied filmmaking at the University of British Columbia and completed her final undergraduate film (an ambitious dramatization of the 1976 anti-apartheid Soweto riots) in her home country of South Africa. Her first film-related project, Tiki Bar TV, fused her family’s aptitude for technological innovation with her own passion for hands-on filmmaking. Tiki Bar TV was the first-ever video podcast, for which Musk served as producer and darn near everything else, down to building the set for the show in her own home and hand-painting numerous props for each episode.

More crucially, she brought in sponsors and increased the show’s merchandising, transforming Tiki Bar TV from an internet cult item to an ongoing, sustainable business with over half a million subscribers. Tosca and the show’s creators were showered with awards for their work on the show, which was cited by Forbes as “one of the first breakout stars in the world of internet television.”

Musk continued to actively write, produce, and direct numerous features in diverse genres, including the highly successful tele-film Holiday Engagement, which set a record as the most-watched movie on the Hallmark cable network.

Passionflix

Many of her passions come together in the appropriately-named Passionflix, which began operating last year. She raised $4.75 million to fund the company — with angel investments from her brother Kimbal Musk (who has an estimated net worth of $672 million), Jason Calacanis, Bill Lee and Norman Lear.

Passionflix aims at an audience looking for classic and new movies featuring relatable female protagonists. For $5.99 a month, viewers can enjoy a specially-curated selection of romantic movies, as well as original material created by Tosca herself and a growing slate of female filmmakers.

Some may balk that most of the company’s original offerings are adaptations of popular romance novels, but Tosca is simply working to fill the demands of a specific and growing audience. Her efforts to boost feminine representation both on-screen and behind the camera (in a year where only 3% of major studio movies will be directed by women) are downright laudable.

Tosca remains busy and shows no sign of slowing down. As the face of her own brand, she is strong and committed — in a word, genuine. And as she shares in her family’s considerable fortunes, she also happily appears to share in their eccentricities as well, enabling us to post the picture of a sincere female filmmaker brandishing a flamethrower.

 

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What Is Guillermo Del Toro’s Net Worth?

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Guillermo Del Toro

The Shape of Water, the latest film from visionary director Guillermo del Toro, just won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and has made $126.4 million at the box office so far. But what is Guillermo del Toro’s net worth?

 

His net worth is estimated at $40 million. He is perhaps the most famous and financially successful Mexican filmmaker, and among the best-known directors of horror and fantasy films.

But he achieved that position after more than two decades of hard, passionate work spent honing his craft and working on a huge number of projects.

His Directing History

His first feature as director, Cronos (total box office: $621,000), introduced to the world a bold and distinct new voice in fantasy cinema. He turned that initial success into a steady, busy career, alternating between Spanish language films (including the acclaimed fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, which earned $83.3 million at the box office) and Hollywood franchise films such as the vampire actioner Blade II (box office: $155 million) and the Hellboy films (combined box office: $260 million).

Del Toro’s Pacific Rim, a high-budget tale of giant robots battling huge monsters from another dimension, brought in a whopping $411 million at the box office.

His recent work has taken a more adult turn, including works like the Gothic romance Crimson Peak (box office: $74 million) and The Shape of Water  — which in addition to winning four Oscars also gave del Toro his first Golden Globes win earlier this year.

Diversified Career

Naturally much of his current net worth comes from his being an Oscar-winning director, but the fact is he’s incredibly diversified. As side hustles go, being a movie producer (of things like Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, which brought in over $1 billion at the box office combined) is more lucrative than most. And his Emmy-winning Trollhunters series is Netflix’s most-watched youth-targeted show.

As an author, he co-wrote a trilogy of novels and turned them into the long-running television series The Strain. And those novels have been translated into multiple languages, as well. Factor in the art-heavy books he releases as a writer and artist, and he’s comfortable off his author earnings alone.

As for his assets, del Toro owns multiple houses: one in Toronto, his second home and favored work city, and three houses in Agoura Hills, CA (average price: $1.02 million). Two of them hold his substantial collection of horror and fantasy memorabilia; this collection recently completed a tour of three museums in the exhibition “Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters,” and must itself be considered an asset.

Lessons from Guillermo del Toro’s Net Worth

His incredible career trajectory is the perfect illustration of the principle: Follow your passion. As one goes deeper into del Toro’s writing about the monsters that obsess him, it’s hard to imagine him becoming anything else. He has often put his directing salary (the guild minimum is about $220,ooo per movie) toward the effects of his movies to achieve his vision (though his movies are successful enough that he earns his salary on the back end). He will almost certainly continue to do this when needed, and be sure, his salary and his net worth will definitely increase as a result of his Oscar wins.

Also remarkable is del Toro’s persistence. Some of his projects were too big to execute, or too weird to find financing, but he hasn’t let those setbacks keep him from moving forward (or sideways, on other work). He’s also backed away from deals that haven’t worked for him; his second feature, Mimic (box office: $25 million) was taken from him by the Weinstein Company, and he vowed never to work for them again (a smart decision, given recent events).

Finally, del Toro himself exhibits a warm personality that has endeared him to his fans, and his collaborators are constantly sending messages of friendship and respect over social media. He has reaped huge success while maintaining artistic integrity, while amassing an enviable net worth. Such success could not have happened to a nicer guy.

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