Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
No More Drama: MoviePass to Shut Down for Good
Posted
September 14, 2019
Views
72,138
Likes
396
Comments
128
Engagement
0.73%
September 14, 2019
72,138
396
128
0.73%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Episode Timeline
Every episode in order around the one you’re watching — click any card and the page flips straight to it.
0:49Now PlayingIt looks like the curtain has fallen for good on MoviePass.
Helios & Matheson Analytics Inc., owner of the pioneering movie-theater subscription service, is considering a sale and other options after suspending its operations two months ago. A board committee will “identify, review and explore all strategic and financial alternatives,” including a sale of MoviePass and Moviefone, the company said Friday.
The announcement brings to a close a two-year saga that shook the cinema industry with a monthly subscription that offered unlimited moviegoing for one low price.
Led by penny stock investor Ted Farnsworth and former Netflix executive Mitch Lowe, MoviePass was unable to keep up with the demand it created with its $10-a-month plan or profitably offer a service that effectively subsidized moviegoing. Still MoviePass helped boost attendance, and theater owners across the country took notice.
“The company is unable to predict if or when the MoviePass service will continue,” Helios said.
The service spurred leaders like AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. to offer their own subscriptions, while MoviePass’s precarious finances forced the service to continually cut back and find ways to stay afloat. The July shutdown was called an effort to revamp its app and recapitalize.
Farnsworth has a string of ventures behind him, from psychic phone lines to energy drinks, some of which lost all their value. At one point, Helios shares advanced 1,151%. Today it trades below a penny.
The company is being investigated by the New York Attorney General for securities fraud and faces class action lawsuits.
TICTOC ON SOCIAL:
Follow TicToc on Twitter
Like TicToc on Facebook
Follow TicToc on Instagram
Subscribe to our newsletter
TicToc by Bloomberg is global news for the life you lead. We are a 24/7 news network that covers breaking news, politics, technology, business and entertainment stories from around the globe, supported by a network of Bloomberg’s 2,700 journalists across 120 countries.
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
