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The MoviePass you know and love has basically burned to the ground, but the company wants you to know it’s not dead yet!
In a remarkably defensive press release issued Thursday, MoviePass says it’s “still standing.”
“To paraphrase Mark Twain: Talk of our demise is greatly exaggerated,” the statement continues, which you can read in full at the bottom of this post.
MoviePass is no longer the $10-a-month, all-you-can-watch movie service that amazed us last August. After temporarily running out of cash, locking its customers out of Mission: Impossible and experiencing multiple outages — one CNET editor says the service still wasn’t working yesterday, and today the only options she sees are matinees and 10 p.m. screenings — MoviePass announced Tuesday that it would raise its prices and limit people from seeing major films.
Even Elon Musk isn’t touching that mess.
Here’s MoviePass’s new statement in full:
MoviePass: We’re Still Standing
To paraphrase Mark Twain: Talk of our demise is greatly exaggerated
MoviePass™, the nation’s premier movie theater subscription service and a majority-owned subsidiary of Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (Nasdaq:HMNY) (“Helios”), today pushed back on comments by some in the theater industry who have predicted, and in some cases declared, its passing.
Exhibitors know that without MoviePass they will be able to continue to charge exorbitant prices for theater tickets and gouge customers with overpriced concessions. This is exactly the attitude the taxicab industry took when Uber entered their market.
Furthermore, any crowing about the uptick in box office receipts this summer season should include the fact that a significant percentage of that total is directly attributable to MoviePass subscribers.
Here’s just a sample:
- MoviePass contributed nearly one-fourth of the domestic box office receipts for Lionsgate’s “Blindspotting” through the first Tuesday after its release.
- MoviePass ticket purchases represented nearly 17 percent of Thursday night previews for Paramount’s “Book Club.”
- For Warner Bros.’ “Tag,” which MoviePass promoted in-app, its purchases represented 13 percent of the film’s opening weekend domestic box office totals
- MoviePass ticket purchases accounted for about 12 percent of the entire theatrical run for Magnolia Pictures’ runaway documentary hit “RGB.”
Overall, we believe as much as 6 percent of the industry’s total box office receipts can be traced to our loyal subscribers. It’s clear that because of MoviePass, more people are seeing more movies at fair prices. Instead of wishing us away, the industry, particularly the independent film producers, should be congratulating and supporting us. Absent MoviePass, exhibitors are fighting to preserve profits in a declining box office environment. That’s the doomed strategy.
Yes, we’re going through a rough patch not unlike what other disruptive enterprises experienced in their early days. Much of our issues can be attributed to the unprecedented growth in a business that just 12 months ago did not exist.
Several CNET staffers are hoping that MoviePass will pull through (and someday give us our unlimited back), but we wouldn’t bet on it.
