Hopefully you got your money’s worth because as of today, September 14th, infamous movie theater service, MoviePass, has officially shut down.
The company made the official announcement yesterday, notifying subscribers they will no longer be providing discounted tickets for current releases in movie theaters. The company said its “efforts to recapitalize MoviePass have not been successful to date.” MoviePass is looking at its options going forward, including selling assets and the entirety of the company.
MoviePass has been around since 2011 but exploded in popularity in 2016 when Mitch Lowe became CEO, and the company got aggressive in its pricing structure, including a $9.95 per month option. Subscribers of the service got the ability to see an unlimited amount of movies during the month.
The last message.
It was a model that was difficult to maintain. Theater chains such as AMC began accepting MoviePass subscriptions in limited amounts. Plus, with MoviePass eating the additional costs, the company was losing money quickly. The company’s struggles didn’t stop there, the company played around with how many movies subscribers could see in any given week and month before settling on three per month before its demise.
The last few months haven’t been kind to the company after a string of controversies fell upon the company. Users were locked out of buying tickets to popular movies during peak hours and ticket price surges. MoviePass was then found to change the passwords of accounts so subscribers couldn’t log in, and credit card security breaches have brought bad PR to the once-promising company.
Unfortunately, with all the issues, the company could never become profitable, and the money ran out. Today’s shut down was inevitable.
What do you think of MoviePass’ demise? Does it make you sad? Did you ever take advantage of the service? Let us know in the comments below.
Brandon is a Journalism student at the University of Nevada, Reno. He loves all games, but don’t get him started on Kingdom Hearts. He wishes every console had a handle like the GameCube.
