Following failure to acquire the necessary funds, Moviepass has announced that its subscription movie service will no longer be.
"On September 13, 2019, MoviePass notified its subscribers that it would be interrupting the MoviePass service for all its subscribers effective September 14, 2019, because its efforts to recapitalize MoviePass™ have not been successful to date," penned MoviePass parent company Helios & Methesson in a press release. "The Company is unable to predict if or when the MoviePass™ service will continue. The Company is continuing its efforts to seek financing to fund its operations. There can be no assurance that any such financing will be obtained or available on terms acceptable to the Committee."
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At its inception in 2011, MoviePass offered a $40/month subscription that allowed users to watch an unlimited amount of movies at their local theater. It was then cut to $9.95 by CEO Mitch Lowe when he came on board in 2016 to attract a larger audience, making it competition for streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. MoviePass would, in turn, pay theaters the full cost of the tickets that customers took advantage of, which of course exceeded the monthly fee.
By the end of July 2018, MoviePass ran out of funds and was forced to close down temporarily, securing a $5 million emergency loan to float its operations. It began to implement new changes such as surge pricing on select films and limiting the number of tickets that customers could redeem within a month.
"We still deeply believe in the need for the MoviePass service in the marketplace, to maintain affordable access to theaters and provide movie lovers with choices of where to go to the movies," Lowe said on Friday. "Although we do not currently know what the future holds for the MoviePass service, we hope to find a path that will enable us to continue the service in the future."