MoviePass Passes 2 Million Users, But Can It Keep Going? The Subscription Theater Ticket Service Looks to New Revenue Streams

oviePass, the subscription movie ticket and streaming service, has grown its user base exponentially in recent months, but it may become a victim of its own success. The $7.95 per month service, which supplies its users with an unlimited number of monthly movie theater tickets and access to streaming content, has over two million users and counting. Purchasing multiple movie theater tickets for these two million users every month, however, generates a significant operating loss. MoviePass hopes to reverse its fortunes through a combination of monetizing the information its users provide, partnerships with movie studios (including acting as a distributor) and theater chains, as well as a gradual process by which its users stop “binging” the service and become more passive consumers.

In other words, MoviePass is hoping its users stop seeing so many movies. With regard to partnerships with theater chains, MoviePass has pursued an aggressive course. After being rebuffed by the popular theater chain AMC when MoviePass allegedly asked for a $3 share of AMC tickets the service covers and 20% of the theater’s concession revenue, MoviePass eliminated the 10 busiest AMC theater locations from its service.  While MoviePass remains deadlocked with AMC and creaking under the weight of its business model, it must be acknowledged that the company’s future is uncertain. But whether MoviePass survives is, in a sense, beside the point. MoviePass has demonstrated that there is a strong appetite for subscription-based movie ticket sales. Perhaps MoviePass is the MySpace to tomorrow’s Facebook: a subscription-based ticket service that finds a way to make it work.

The Hollywood Reporter: MoviePass Cuts Price Again, Bundles Subscription With Fandor 

USA Today: Moviepass Unlimited Movie-Theater Deal Could Be Too Good To Survive

Deadline: The Orchard & MoviePass Ventures To Unleash Sundance Acquisition ‘American Animals’ This Summer

New Atlas: Netflix, Moviepass and How Technology is Radically Redefining the Movie Business

Deadline: MoviePass Vs. AMC: Ticket Service No Longer Covers Chain’s Busiest Theaters; Exhibitor Rips “False Statements”