If you’re one of the millions of subscribers who signed up for MoviePass’s virtually unlimited theater subscription service in the last few months, count yourself lucky and use it while you can. As the company’s finances are called into question, MoviePass has switched to a four ticket per month limit, and the company’s CEO has indicated that the old plan may never return for new subscribers.
On April 13th, MoviePass launched a special “promotion”—instead of being able to see a movie every day for just $10 per month, new subscribers would be restricted to four movie tickets each cycle and they would get a 3-month free trial of iHeartRadio’s All Access. MoviePass has launched similar bundle packages before, but this new ticket limit was seen as a temporary package.
On Thursday, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Lowe was asked if the “unlimited” plan would return. The CEO only said, “I don’t know.” His comments appeared to signal a new phase of MoviePass in which different packages will continue to be rolled out. “We just always try different things,” Lowe said. “Every time we try a new promotion, we never put a deadline on it.”
We’ve reached out to MoviePass to confirm if it isn’t currently planning on bringing back the ticket-a-day plan and we’ll update this post when we receive a reply.
The feasibility of MoviePass’s model to pay full price for tickets while it builds a customer base and negotiates deals with theaters has come under greater scrutiny as its parent company bleeds money. The company’s stock price fell by more than 40 percent last week following a disappointing SEC filing. The stock got a little bump this afternoon after Mitch Lowe made his comments.
None of this necessarily means MoviePass is doomed. Lowe says 88 percent of MoviePass subscribers watch two movies or less per month. And four movies per month is still a good deal for 10 bucks. But the too-good-to-be-true golden days seem to already be coming to a close.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Mitch Lowe appeared at a Q&A. It was a one-on-one interview with The Hollywood Reporter.