Last week, MoviePass shut down once again with the struggling movie ticket subscription service shutting down its app sometime during the Fourth of July weekend in order to reportedly complete an “improved version” of the app. However, with no time frame revealed for this outage many are wondering if this shut down is an indefinite one — and if this is the end of the controversial service.
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In a statement last week, MoviePass Inc. chief executive Mitch Lowe said that the shutdown had to be done in order to provide a better experience for subscribers.
“There’s never a good time to have to do this, but to complete the improved version of our app, one that we believe will provide a much better experience for our subscribers, it has to be done,” the statement read. “We have listened, and we understand the frustrations of our subscribers. To provide the level of service you deserve, and we can be proud of, we need to improve our mobile app. We plan to make this improvement by utilizing an enhanced technology platform, which is in the final stages of completion.”
On the surface that sounds like a good thing, but as Movieweb notes, MoviePass is continuing to struggle. Last April, MoviePass suffered a number of unexpected service interruptions, restrictions of use, and price fluctuations. These issues led to roughly 90 percent of MoviePass subscribers to leave the service. On top of that, the company has also struggled with funding. While MoviePass offers tickets to subscribers at a discount — the service was launched in 2011 with the promise that fans could see any movies any time they wanted at a limit of one movie per day for just $9.95 per month — the company still pays full price for each ticket. It’s a model that isn’t exactly great for business, especially since Helios and Matheson, the company that purchased MoviePass, has never found a way to bridge the financial gap.
It also sounds like this shut down may ultimately mean the end for MoviePass not just because of known money concerns and the open-ended information when it comes to how long the service will be down. The service isn’t accepting any new subscribers and even has a message on its website telling those interested that they can leave their email for information when they start accepting new subscribers.
“For the past several months, MoviePass has been working hard to improve our groundbreaking subscription service to ensure it meets the vision that we have for it,” the message reads. “We are temporarily not accepting new subscribers as we work on these improvements. Please enter your email below and you will be notified when we are accepting new subscribers to our improved service.”
What do you think? Is MoviePass done or do you think they can still make this work? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
