- MoviePass, a subscription-based service, which spent a lot of money on subsidizing movie tickets in order to change the theater business model is closing down on September 14th.
- Moviepass was last seen laying off the staff including the team which was responsible for the partnerships with the movie theaters, following a brief stoppage in July.
MoviePass, a subscription-based service, which spent a lot of money on subsidizing movie tickets in order to change the theater business model is closing down on September 14th. This news came today via emails to subscribers and separately in a press release issued by parent company Helios and Matheson. It marks the end of a clumsy and turbulent two-year saga that saw a once-popular platform go to extreme lengths to keep its business running, despite the dull and fraught financial cost.
Moviepass was last seen laying off the staff including the team which was responsible for the partnerships with the movie theaters, following a brief stoppage in July. The company didn’t clear out when it would begin operating again, but monthly and annual subscribers were left with an application that was dysfunctional and a debit card which was not functioning. Although the company claimed later on that it restored service of some employees but that seems to be a vague claim.
MoviePass was alleged to have exposed thousands of its customer’s credit card numbers in plain text online, rounding a huge chunk of negative publicity.
According to the parent company Helios and Matheson, MoviePass has gone too far to be saved. The company has said that it will try the best to seek funds and recover MoviePass but they can’t predict when the company will be functional again.
Another reason for the failure of Moviepass is the business strategies to bring in the additional revenue. The strategies were despised by the traditional market which blamed the company to force itself between the end product and the customer, which failed badly and was seen as a move for the hostile takeover of the market.
MoviePass was successful in securing some partnerships with small and local theater and marketing deals with Hollywood production companies to promote new films. MoviePass and AMC had a long-running public feud which resulted in AMC creating its own subscription model that became an instant hit. Seeing this, other companies in the business such as Regal also followed the suit.
After a popular first year, MoviePass started to run out of money and without any real partnerships in the theater industry the company started cutting costs and hence ran out of money.
A classic example of failure due to bad business strategies and ignorance of partners, MoviePass is a sad story in the Hollywood entertainment industry.
