MoviePass 'interrupts service' with just 24 hours' notice

[Bubbajim]

In brief: After years of attempts to make the service financially viable, MoviePass’s parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc (Helios), has thrown in the towel. The subscription service for cheap movie tickets has been halted with just 24 hours’ notice.

It’s been a dramatic, meandering path to reach this point, but MoviePass has said it ‘must interrupt service for all current’ subscribers, as its parent company says it is “unable to predict if or when the MoviePass service will continue.”

The service allowed subscribers paying $9.95 a month to enjoy as many movie tickets as they would like each month, capped at one film per day. That offer was replaced by a three-ticket-per-month cap, before being reintroduced in March this year. It was then in July that the company said that ‘big changes’ were coming, but it seems whatever was planned hasn’t worked out.

On Friday, the company CEO Mitch Lowe posted a message saying that all services would be discontinued starting Saturday, September 14 – giving less than 24 hours’ notice. There is a small glimmer of hope for subscribers as Lowe’s statement says “we hope to find a path that will enable us to continue the service in the future,” but given the much-publicized setbacks the company has faced, it seems clear that the business model simply isn’t viable.

According to former employees, MoviePass had been hoping that infrequent movie-goers would balance out the glut of ‘power users’ who sought to use the offer as much as possible, but this evidently hasn’t happened.

MoviePass’s website says that any current subscribers will have ‘appropriate refunds’ paid to them, and that there is no need ‘to request a refund or contact MoviePass’s customer service.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81901-moviepass-interrupts-service-24-hours-notice.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Another one bites the dust .....

 

[mailpup]

According to former employees, MoviePass had been hoping that infrequent movie-goers would balance out the glut of ‘power users’ who sought to use the offer as much as possible, but this evidently hasn’t happened.

I'm not sure why they would think infrequent movie goers would bother to subscribe in the first place.

 

[trparky]

I'm not sure why they would think infrequent movie goers would bother to subscribe in the first place.

I was thinking that too. Really, if you don't go see movies all the time you'd just pay for the one-off movie you go and see. Paying for a subscription service for a product you don't often use is just stupid.

 

[scavengerspc]

Oh good God did they really think the under 30 crowd would be responsible and not milk the service dry? Bad planning.

 

[captaincranky]

Movie Pass' business model was completely unsustainable from the jump, so what did everyone think would eventually happen.

Like the saying goes, "if it seems too good to be true, it more than likely is".

Movie Pass has been borrowing and losing money throughout its existence, but ya wanna bet its executive board has been drawing fat paychecks. The next step is bankruptcy, while those execs walk away with their "golden parachutes".

Anyone with any sense should have realized that when Movie Pass claimed, "they weren't discounting the per ticket payout to theaters", that this was a pure, unadulterated scam, nothing more..(And that includes the dipsticks at the banks and MP's investors).

 

[Kashim]

A single movie ticket costs more than $9.95 where I live. So if I use their service only once a month, they're already in the red. Even the most casual subscriber would probably go at least once a week (four times a month) or why pay for a service like this at all? I don't get how they planned to make up that massive difference in cost. I know they were trying to make money from selling info to movie companies about the movie watching habits of the subscribers, but there's just no way to make enough from that to cover their cost.

 

[m3tavision]

According to former employees, MoviePass had been hoping that infrequent movie-goers would balance out the glut of ‘power users’ who sought to use the offer as much as possible, but this evidently hasn’t happened.

I'm not sure why they would think infrequent movie goers would bother to subscribe in the first place.

I was just about to quote the same passage in the article.
Are these CEO's so stupid, they think people will get a subscription and not use it? OR that others would subscribe and forget they are making payments? So they planned on making profits off people who don't use it..?

 

[ShagnWagn]

According to former employees, MoviePass had been hoping that infrequent movie-goers would balance out the glut of ‘power users’ who sought to use the offer as much as possible, but this evidently hasn’t happened.

I'm not sure why they would think infrequent movie goers would bother to subscribe in the first place.

I was just about to quote the same passage in the article.
Are these CEO's so stupid, they think people will get a subscription and not use it? OR that others would subscribe and forget they are making payments? So they planned on making profits off people who don't use it..?

Perhaps they thought people would keep paying subscriptions and not use them, like, gym memberships. lol. I bet there are at least twice as many people at a gym paying and not using than people that actually work out even once a month.

 

[m3tavision]

Perhaps they thought people would keep paying subscriptions and not use them, like, gym memberships. lol. I bet there are at least twice as many people at a gym paying and not using than people that actually work out even once a month.

It much easier to sit in a fake leather chair and watch a movie, than it is to goto the gym. Company is a fail.