Well, it’s finally happened. Just days after MoviePass literally ran out of funds to purchase movie tickets and had to take out a $6 million loan just to remain in operation, the company has announced that it will be raising the price of its famous $9.95 “all you can watch” movie plan. “Within the next 30 days,” the company says that the “standard pricing plan” will now be $14.95 per month, pointing toward yet another disaster in the making for MoviePass.
This news comes in an otherwise glowing and optimistic press release from the company, which brags that its new “cost-reduction and subscription revenue increase measures” have already cut “the monthly burn” by 60 percent. Owners Helios and Matheson Analytics will surely be feeling great about that news, which should be comforting, given that their stock has essentially become valueless over the course of the last few months.
That’s not all, though—the press release from MoviePass ALSO suggests that subscribers won’t be able to view first run movies in wide release until they’ve been open for several weeks. To quote the exact phrasing from the release:
First Run Movies opening on 1,000+ Screens to be limited in their availability during the first two weeks, unless made available on a promotional basis.
This is hardly a shock to those who were trying to use the service this past weekend, when subscribers were turned away from being able to see Mission Impossible — Fallout. Now, the latest language makes it sound like MoviePass won’t be available to use during any kind of release of any kind of substantial size. The press release also notes that the company is looking forward to a “continued rollout and refinement of the Peak Pricing program,” which saw moviegoers this past weekend charged for “peak pricing” in theaters that were almost entirely empty. In general, none of this news is going to be received well by MoviePass subscribers, who we can only imagine were already at the end of their collective ropes.
In the end, unlimited movies for $9.95 was a fun dream, but not one that could ever last. And dare we say it, “unlimited movies for $14.95” probably won’t last much longer. Enjoy it while you can, folks.