Skip to main content

MoviePass moving back to 1-per-day model amid questions of profitability

If it wasn’t clear before that MoviePass values your data more than your money, it should be now.

MoviePass is already back to its crowd-pleasing ways, as you can see on its home page, going back to the one-ticket-per-day model that attracted more than a million people. This follows a cross-promotion with iHeartRadio (which began just days ago) that saw the ticketing service limit subscribers to four movies per month.

The promotion was seen by many as a way for MoviePass to recoup lost money, as the service’s current business model is something of a financial hemorrhage. In a January interview with CNN, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe dismissed concerns over the numbers (and over MoviePass’s strained relationship with AMC, the largest theater chain in America), claiming that the service stood to remain profitable over the long run by selling customer data for advertising purposes. This apparently does not apply to location data though, according to Lowe.

Perhaps coincidentally (and perhaps not), MoviePass parent Matheson Analytics released a regulatory filing — citing losses incurred since the one-movie-per-day model first debuted in August 2017 — just a few days after the iHeartRadio promotion went up. “To continue to support the business objectives of MoviePass, we have a present need for additional funding, which may be unavailable to us,” the filing read.

For the unaware, MoviePass buys tickets directly from theaters and applies them to users’ accounts. Given that a single ticket can run upwards of $20 for primetime showings, the $10 monthly fee seemed too good to be true. And according to a different filing, MoviePass buys about six percent of all movie tickets sold in the U.S. each month. Even at (presumably) discounted bulk rates, that’s a lot of money.

MoviePass has recently ruffled feathers in other ways as well. In March, users were disallowed from using their tickets on Red Sparrow, and similar problems were reported (though with less frequency) for Black Panther showings in February. In addition, March saw the return of an unpopular security feature requiring customers to screenshot their tickets and upload to the MoviePass app.

When the iHeartRadio promotion began, MoviePass also began restricting users from seeing the same movie twice, an odd decision which irked many subscribers. At the time, Lowe also said “I don’t know” when asked whether the popular one-per-day model would return.

Editors' Recommendations

Nick Hastings
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Nick is a Portland native and a graduate of Saint Mary's College of California with a Bachelor's of Communication. Nick's…
MoviePass converts its annual plans to monthly memberships
MoviePass card and iPhone app

MoviePass has had a rough few months and is responding to the difficulties it is facing with some policy changes. Its latest change came with the announcement that it will be discontinuing its annual subscription plan. In an email sent out to annual subscribers, obtained by The Verge, the company stated that it was ending its annual plans as part of its mission to keep prices low while expanding its slate of available films.

While MoviePass has undergone numerous changes over the past several months, its annual subscribers have been largely immune to these effects. The company's shifting policies have had the largest impact on monthly subscribers. However, this change will convert the company's annual subscribers to monthly ones, meaning they will then be subject to the same conditions as other monthly subscribers.

Read more
MoviePass limits movies and showtimes each day as part of a new plan
MoviePass Debit Card

Every day seems to bring a new, controversial change for MoviePass, the troubled subscription service for movie screenings.

A new plan rolled out Wednesday and explained in a letter sent out Thursday, August 16, limits both the number of movies subscribers will be able to see each month and both the movies and showtimes available on any given day. Subscribers are now limited to three movies each month under the plan, and the list of movies and showtimes available will change each day. The list of each day's movies will be updated on the MoviePass website.

Read more
MoviePass forces customers to choose between only two movies
moviepass

MoviePass has had a rough few months and things aren't looking much better. The company recently announced that in September it would limit customers to three movies a month for a price of $10. Now The New York Post reports that the company is forcing customers to choose between just two movies a day.

On August 10, before the app crashed entirely, moviegoers were forced to choose between Slender Man, a horror movie with less than stellar reviews, and Mission: Impossible -- Fallout. The Mission Impossible sequel is doing very well on Rotten Tomatoes with a fresh rating of 97 percent, so it is not a bad film. It's plagued by limited showtimes, however. The Post reported that, when using MoviePass at an AMC in Times Square, Mission: Impossible -- Fallout was available only at two showtimes: One in the midafternoon and the other around 10:45 p.m., which would see viewers getting out at around 1:30 in the morning.

Read more