Struggling movie ticket subscription MoviePass is finally shutting down after months of questionable policy changes and what seems like a never ending stream of negative press due to an inability to make money.
In a press release shared on Friday, MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics said that the MoviePass service would be shutting down for all subscribers on September 14, 2019 because efforts to recapitalize the service "have not been successful to date."
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At this time, the company says that it is not able to predict if and when the MoviePass service will resume though it is "continuing efforts to seek financing to fund its operations."
MoviePass first launched its unlimited plan in 2017, promising customers unrestricted movie access for $9.99 per month, an effort that failed catastrophically within a matter of months.
MoviePass was providing customers with debit cards and paying full price for each movie ticket despite the low monthly fee, with the expectation that deals with movie theaters and customer data would make up for the cost.
In mid-2018, MoviePass ran out of money and was reportedly losing up to $40 million per month, and at that point, the company began cutting back on the quality of service by limiting movie access, raising prices, and even temporarily shutting down.
MoviePass even tried changing the passwords of its most active users in an attempt to save money.
Despite all of its efforts, MoviePass has not managed to retain enough customers to be profitable (going from three million subscribers last year to 225,000), and it hasn't helped that in August, an unencrypted MoviePass database leaked thousands of customer records.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Seeing ONE movie usually costs more than $9.99... What kind of business model was it to sell "UNLIMITED" movies for $9.99?
Because most people won’t actually manage to go watch a movie once a month in the cinema.What why?
Well, usually companies that keep losing money eventually go out of business or at least they should because I’m sure you would agree that investing a ton of money into a business that keeps losing money for years and years is dumb. That’s Uber in a nutshell. I know Uber is hoping for automated vehicles to become a safe and reliable reality sooner than most experts have predicted so they keep manipulating investors into believing their Ponzi scheme is the real deal. Now, if California passes AB5 which forces companies like Uber to treat everyone who works for them as full employees of the company instead of contractors/freelancers, things may get very dicey for a shady company like Uber. In other words, Uber may be next (among others). Uber can pull out of California, their home state, but what happens when they have to pull out of New York? Other states? The investor gravy train ends.Seeing ONE movie usually costs more than $9.99... What kind of business model was it to sell "UNLIMITED" movies for $9.99?
Apparently an unsuccessful one. Such a shady company, especially when they just reset your password to save money.Uber is next
What why?Uber is next
In California, at least. Thanks Governor Newsom! o_O