For a year, MoviePass was the best thing to happen to cinema lovers, as they could see up to one movie every day for just $9.95 a month. After two years changing their policies and accusations of fraud, MoviePass has shut down.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news and said that Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc will shut the service down on Sept. 14.
This comes after two years of MoviePass losing a massive amount of subscribers when they began to implement restrictions.
First, the app stopped working and showed there were no available screenings, even in movie theaters whose parking lots were almost empty. Then, they restricted the number of movies per month people could see.
Bad business model to say the least. I did however use it into the ground during its one good year. I mean for $89 for a years subscription I saw like 70 films.
— Just another Dolores (@remymarcchris2) September 13, 2019
After this, there were still days where there were no available screenings to any movies and many subscribers said they were paying $9.95 a month and never got to see any movies at all.
When AMC began offering their AMC Stubs A-List for $19.99 a month for three movies a week, MoviePass lost even more subscribers. It was $10 more a month but there were never any problems seeing the movies a person wanted to see.
At one time MoviePass had over three million subscribers but after the price changes and the lack of available movie screenings, the company lost a huge percentage of those subscribers.
— Liz (@licenia) September 13, 2019
AMC now boasts over 900,000 subscribers. Cinemark has 800,000 members for its Movie Club and Regal Cinemas just started their own subscription plan in June.
MoviePass, as is normal for the company, has spun the news, calling it a “service interruption.” They sent out a message to members promising that they will not charge anyone during the interruption but added they are not sure if the service will continue in the future.
BREAKING: MoviePass will shutdown tomorrow, Sept 14. Subscribers are about to receive a letter from the company. Accrording to a source, they will not be charged during the service interruption and will receive "appropriate refunds for their period of service already paid for"
— Rebecca Jarvis (@RebeccaJarvis) September 13, 2019
According to Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc, “efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date.”