Spikes and Watt, who are both Black, teamed up in 2011 to launch MoviePass, which was born out of Spikes’ UrbanWorld Film Festival. Spikes created the festival in 1997 with the intention of amplifying films created by people of color by providing them a platform to showcase their work. The origin of MoviePass was derived from Spikes’ idea to make UrbanWorld a subscription service.
Spikes and Watt sought to disrupt the movie industry and organized a plan to make what they envisioned would be the largest moviegoing subscription business ever conceived; however, they were somewhat stymied by racial stereotypes in the business world, which partially led to the onboarding of Lowe and Farnsworth. “There are certain stereotypes that society has of what a successful entrepreneur looks like, and we didn’t look like that,” said Spikes. “If you have a white male with more grey hair that could inspire other males with white hair to be more comfortable investing — it’s a factor that we considered through the entire entrepreneurial journey,” Watt said.
Not long after Lowe and Farnsworth joined the MoviePass team, the board structure shifted, and Spikes and Watt were given fewer seats before being ousted from the board entirely. Spikes and the new executives consistently butted heads over finances — while MoviePass’ stock had increased exponentially, the company was still functioning on its non-profitable, cheap monthly subscription model.
“We’re learning how to build the plane in mid-flight and changing it from a crop duster to a 747,” Spikes recalls telling the CEOs in the documentary. “We were not prepared to keep running at that pace.”
Lowe eventually elected to fire Spikes, which was met with sadness by a number of MoviePass employees. “It broke my heart to see two Black founders create a company like we did, and then all of sudden there was an all-white board,” Spikes said.