MoviePass says 'overwhelming demand' has crashed its servers as people try joining the waitlist, days after it announced its Labor Day return

• MoviePass is returning on Labor Day in beta form, three years after it shut down.
• The waitlist opened Thursday morning.
• But MoviePass said its servers crashed due to demand.

MoviePass, the embattled movie-ticketing subscription company, will relaunch on September 5, Labor Day, three years after it shut down.

But it's already facing some technical difficulties.

MoviePass tweeted on Thursday that its servers had crashed due to "overwhelming demand" after its waitlist opened at 9 am EST that day, and that people were receiving an error message.

Insider received this error message when we tried signing up.

"The overwhelming demand has crashed the MoviePass site servers causing some to receive an error message while trying to join the waitlist," the company said. "The provider is working to increase capacity to meet demand. Thanks your your patience. We will give an update soon."

MoviePass announced on Monday that "being on the waitlist will be the only way to be able to sign up for the service in the foreseeable future" and that it was first come, first served.

Insider first reported that last year MoviePass cofounder Stacy Spikes had bought back the company from its parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics after it went bankrupt. 

MoviePass skyrocketed in popularity in 2018 after it lowered its monthly subscription price to $10, amassing 3 million subscribers. But it wasn't sustainable. After burning through millions of dollars, MoviePass shut down in September 2019 and Helios and Matheson filed for bankruptcy in 2020.