As the old saying goes, when something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. That’s been a suspicion about MoviePass, the subscription service that lets you see a movie every day for a low monthly fee. But new updates and restrictions may signal trouble ahead for the upstart startup.
Another change that has some moviegoers irked isdisallowing repeat viewingsof “select” movies. According to The Verge, MoviePass says the policy “encourages you to enjoy something different,” but the movies on the no-repeat list aren’t specified. There have also been reports of users being required toupload photos of their ticket stubs, ostensibly to prevent fraud.
The new offer also packages in a three-month subscription to iHeart Radio All Access, which consumers must actively opt out of or it automatically converts to a $10-per-month subscription of its own.
As the New York Times reports, MoviePass executives are sayingnothing to see here, move along,even as an auditor’s report voiced “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.” The company has been losing $20 million a month since September.
“I’m not worried about the viability of MoviePass at all,” said Ted Farnsworth of Helios and Matheson Analytics, which owns the vast majority of the company. “Our customer service has dramatically improved, we’ve worked out the little bugs with the technology, and we have plenty of money to get through the next year.”
“We love the idea that everybody thinks that we’re going to fail. It’s exactly what people told us at Netflix and Redbox,” said Lowe. “And then suddenly they all turned around and realized we were too big to stop.”
