Struggling movie-subscription provider MoviePass keeps rejiggering the schedule of titles available to customers on certain days — in a bid to reduce its cash burn.
Over the next week, MoviePass is offering up to nine movies to choose from daily, whereas it told subscribers on Aug. 16 they’d be limited to six per day.
This weekend, MoviePass’s lineup includes Melissa McCarthy comedy “The Happytime Murders.” But it excludes the two biggest movies currently in theaters: “The Meg” and “Crazy Rich Asians.” Other popular films in current release that are a no-show for MoviePass: Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” “Christoper Robin” and Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.”
More important, note that many of the films on MoviePass’s schedule are in very limited release, so the number of movies customers are actually able to see in nearby theaters may be just one or two. The upcoming lineup includes such indie films as John Cho-starrer “Searching,” which bows this weekend, along with “We the Animals,” “Papillon,” “An L.A. Minute,” “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” “Skate Kitchen” and “Juliet, Naked.”
As of Aug. 15, MoviePass changed the terms of its plan to limit customers to only three movies per month for $9.95, down from one per day under the prior offer. MoviePass also has told customers showtime availability “may be limited depending on the popularity of those films on the app that particular day.”
The limited availability of blockbuster films stems from the fact that MoviePass pays a premium for the most in-demand moves during peak periods. The company’s dramatic curtailing of options for customers — coming off a nearly $127 million for Q2 — punctures a hole in its original Netflix-for-theaters promise.
Meanwhile, the new subscription plan from AMC Theatres is going gangbusters.
The AMC Stubs A-List plan, launched in response to MoviePass, costs $19.95 per month for up to three viewings per week. Last week the chain said AMC Stubs A-List members have attended more than 1 million movies and the program has signed up over 260,000 paying members less than two months after launching. The company said A-List members now account for more than 5% of its weekly attendance.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety