In less than two months MoviePass raked in one million new subscribers, sending it over the 2 million mark according to The Wrap.
The success of the movie pass subscription skyrocketed after the company lowered its monthly fee from $50 to $9.95 in August. The physical pass, or e-ticket version accessible through their app, allows subscribers to see movies at participating theaters.
“MoviePass is attracting people back to the movie theaters by lowering their cost, which we believe is transformational for the industry,” Ted Farnsworth said, according to Variety. Farnsworth is the chairman and chief executive officer of parent company Helios and Matheson. “We believe the data MoviePass collects from these two million movie-goers will become an important asset to our partners and the future of the movie industry.”
It’s unclear if MoviePass is pushing more people to go to theaters, or simply capturing an audience that would have gone to the movies anyway, but can now go at a cheaper price. In 2017, U.S. movie admissions dropped to its lowest point since 1995, even with incredibly high grossing films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jordan Peele’sGet Out.
MoviePass credits the large surge in subscribers to not only its incredibly low price, but also award show season. “We’re giving people a reason to go back to the movie theaters and they’re going in droves. With awards season here, we hope we can make Hollywood and exhibitors very happy by filling seats with eager audiences,” said Mitch Lowe, chief executive officer.
But not everyone loves MoviePass. The company recently faced off with theater chain AMC after deciding to pull its subscription service from 10 AMC multiplexes in January. This followed AMC’s threat of legal action against MoviePass, pointing out that the business model did not appear sustainable.
Since each pass is only $9.95 a month, and most movie tickets are more expensive than that, the company is subsidizing the cost of each customer's tickets. For 2 million subscribers, that means MoviePass is forking over a lot of money, so it’s unclear how the company supplements those costs, or if subscribers will be met with a price hike sometime in the near future.
