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"Get customers now, worry about making money later" is a prevailing mindset for tech startups. Sometimes that works, and sometimes you get a MoviePass. After MoviePass cut its all-you-can-watch movie theater subscription service to a tantalizing $9.95/month, it never quite managed to carve out enough of a profit to actually continue operating, and now the service is shutting down completely.
Movie ticket subscription service and MoviePass competitor Sinemia has ended operations in the United States, the company has announced. Sinemia cites difficulty in covering "increased operations and legal costs."
MoviePass' ongoing implosion has always been very public, so somehow it makes sense that its parent company issued a press release to announce its plans to formally distance itself from the failing movie subscription service. Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), which focuses primarily on data analysis, stated that it plans to spin out MoviePass and some associated holdings into an independent company in order separate the movie services' brand from its own.
The $10 unlimited movie subscription from app-based MoviePass seemed too good to be true when it launched a few years back, and indeed it was. MoviePass is in the process of imploding, but one of its European rivals has taken this opportunity to expand into the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. Sinemia says its approach is sustainable, but it's also more expensive. You'll pay $30 per month for unlimited movies.
In one of the larger business gaffes of the year so far, movie ticket subscription service MoviePass recently tried to increase prices while simultaneously cutting member benefits. The ill-conceived move ultimately didn't come to fruition, but the company did limit the benefits its customers get for their $9.99 monthly subscription. Seeing an opportunity too good to pass up, competitor Sinemia has now introduced its own $9.99 Classic plan with slightly more flexibility for members.
MoviePass has had a tough time recently, between literally running out of money, suffering an effective 99.999% loss in adjusted stock value from last year's peak, and trying to cut member benefits even as it increases prices. But the company is still taking its future quite seriously. In an unexpected move, it has decided not to increase subscription prices. Instead, it'll be switching to a three movie per month maximum, with a $5 discount for any tickets beyond that. Peak Pricing and Ticket Verification—two common customer complaints—will also be axed.
It might be an understatement to say that MoviePass isn't doing too well these days. Many of the service's subscribers (including myself) have stuck aboard the sinking ship anyway to save a bit of cash. But now that the company is imposing new restrictions on use—as well as a 50% price increase to $15 a month—it might be time to head to those lifeboats. Since you can't cancel the service easily via the company's site and there are restrictions on app access/authorization, here's a complete and detailed walkthrough on how to cancel your MoviePass subscription.
The situation at MoviePass is bad. Very bad. With the value of the company having plummeted tremendously after a disastrous reverse stock split last week, MoviePass's owners are doing anything they can to stem the bleeding at the popular all-you-can-eat theater subscription service, and it looks like "anything" means making the service much, much worse.
Most of our readers should probably be familiar with MoviePass—if not for the company's movie ticket-accessing subscription service, at least for its presence in the news for the last few days. If you'll recall, MoviePass owners Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. recently performed a reverse-split for the company's shares to drive up stock prices, but not with much success. More recently, everyone's favorite $6.95 a month service ran into a bit of a snag last night, resulting in a date night-stopping outage. Turns out, that's because the company literally just ran out of money. After borrowing $5 million to turn the lights back on, stock for the parent company took a nosedive to $1.98 (at the time of writing), down 70% over the last 24 hours.
MoviePass is losing money. This isn't news — the venture hasn't been profitable since it started out. The hope is to eventually make money. That hasn't helped Helios and Matheson Analytics, though, which owns 92 percent of MoviePass. The company's stock price has been tanking, which prompted its board of directors to approve a reverse stock split that took effect at the end of trading yesterday. This hasn't improved matters yet; since opening this morning, shares have fallen nearly 40 percent.
By giving more than 2 million customers a way to see multiple movies in theaters each month at a discounted price, MoviePass is disrupting the cinema industry in a big way. While not nearly as much of a household name, Sinemia is vying to do the same. With new subscription plans starting at lower prices and boasting features that its rival doesn't offer, Sinemia may seem like an appealing alternative — and it may be for some types of moviegoers. But as is typically the case, the devil is in the details.
MoviePass has acquired Moviefone in a deal between the two services' parent companies, according to a press release. Moviefone got its start in the pre-internet days of 1989, providing information about movies and their showtimes via a toll-free phone number. The dial-in service was shuttered in 2014, but Moviefone has continued to provide showtime and ticket services via its mobile app and website.
If there's one certainty in life, it's that movie tickets will keep getting more expensive. If you're willing to adjust your habits slightly, MoviePass can save you some cash. This app-based cinema subscription service usually costs about $10 per month for up to one movie every day, but for a limited time, you can get it for just $6.95 per month. There are some caveats, but that's a good deal.
If you're a frequent patron of your local cinemas, you've likely heard of MoviePass, the service that gives you a movie theater ticket a day (with restrictions, of course) for a monthly cost. If you haven't heard of the service before or aren't generally interested in enduring the inconveniences involved with going to a theater, maybe this will pique your interest: MoviePass has just announced a new annual plan that works out to a slight savings of $0.34 a month. MoviePass is disingenuously claiming this new plan works out to $7.95 per month, but the $19.95 processing fee pushes it up to $9.61 a month. In fact, the only real benefit to this new annual subscription is a year of free access to the movie streaming service Fandor.
Whether you're a devotee of independent cinema or a casual movie-goer, Costco has a great deal that will keep you or someone on your last-minute gift list entertained for the next year. Until January 10, 2018, Costco members can grab the Movie Lovers Package, combining one-year subscription to two great movie services, MoviePass and Fandor, for just .99.
MoviePass is a service that allows cinema fans to go to as many films as they want at almost any theater. While a tempting offer, it used to cost $50/month, which was not accessible to all moviegoers. However, the company has announced via its blog that it is implementing a new, universal unlimited subscription plan for just $9.95 per month.
MoviePass sounds like a pretty fantastic service for movie buffs. Pay a set fee every month, and you can go to the theater as much as you would like (with a fairly lengthy list of caveats). It's Netflix, but for all the movies that are out now. While it wouldn't be of much interest to the casual viewer who might only see one or two flicks a year, the avid viewer could save tons of money. What's a sweet subscription without an Android app to go along with it, though?