MoviePass, the service that lets subscribers see one movie a day in their local theaters for only $9.95 per month, has brought back their most popular plan after temporarily removing it.
Update (May 2): MoviePass has brought back their movie-a-day plan after it had been removed in mid April for an iHeartRadio promotion. In a new interview with Variety, CEO Mitch Lowe said “we never planned to abandon the flagship product that everybody loves. Any time we’ve done a promotional package, we’ve taken the monthly plan off our site.”
Variety pointed out that in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter just two weeks ago, Lowe said he didn’t know if the movie-a-day plan was coming back. “It’s marketing 101, he told Variety. “We wanted to focus everybody on this partnership promotion. If people knew the [movie-a-day] plan was coming back, they might not be interested in the iHeartRadio deal.”
That trickster.
Original story (April 19): Overnight their website was quietly updated to note a new partnership with iHeartRadio, in which new subscribers can pay $9.95 per month to watch one new 2D movie per week, or up to four per month. You’ll also receive a free 3-month trial of iHeartRadio (yawn).
A support document confirms this is the only subscription option currently available, meaning potential customers have no choice but to deal with the new limit. It’s not clear how long this limit will be in place.
The thrill of MoviePass is you don’t have to worry about limits, so this definitely throws water on the excitement for newbies. On the other hand, $2.48 per movie per month is still a damn good deal.
That this cap does not carry over to current subscribers.
In recent months MoviePass has drawn criticism for its business model The company must pay theaters the full cost of the ticket even though you the moviegoer is only handing over $9.95/month. While it’s a great deal for consumers, MoviePass is losing tons of money.
The iHeartRadio limit will help reign in the huge costs of operating MoviePass. The company is also trying other partnerships in order to make themselves profitable by next year.
Still, its future is very uncertain. Enjoy it while it lasts!