MoviePass Lost More Than 90% Of Its Subscribers, Although We Can't Imagine Why [Updated]

Update: MoviePass has released a statement claiming that the numbers from Business Insider's reports are false and that its parent company has not released any subscriber numbers.

For some strange reason, MoviePass has dropped 90% of its subscribers in less than a year. Weird, right? What mysterious explanation could there be for this massive decrease in subscriptions? I'm joking, of course. We all know the answer: the movie-ticket-subscription service imploded after leaking money like a siv. This resulted in a sudden change of rules and pricing, which in turn resulted in MoviePass friends to become MoviePass foes. And now here we are, with the company somehow still hanging on, but just barely.

Business Insider has revealed that in less than a year, MoviePass "dropped from over 3 million subscribers to about 225,000." While these numbers are shocking, I can't say they're totally surprising. By now, we're all familiar with the sad, strange tale of MoviePass. While it had been around longer, it was in 2017 when the movie-ticket-subscription service became a phenomenon. The company dropped their price down to $9.95 a month, which seemed like too good of a deal to pass up. As a result, subscriptions surged to over 3 million.

And then it all came crashing down. MoviePass ended up losing hundreds of millions of dollars in the process, and started changing things – including plans and pricing. This didn't go over so well, and many of us assumed the company would be out of business before 2018 ended. But MoviePass lingered, albeit on life support.

Last month, MoviePass unveiled a new Uncapped plan that wouldn't restrict the number of 2D movies subscribers could see. But MoviePass also reserved the right to block access if they so decided. Needless to say, this hasn't helped them out. MoviePass still has a few tricks up its sleeve, though. There's MoviePass Films – original movies that MoviePass is producing, and will then offer via their subscription service. The hope is that these originals will be enticing enough to bring in more subscribers.

While the future looks bleak for MoviePass, Business Insider adds that other movie-ticket-subscription services are doing just fine. Services offered by AMC Theatres and Cinemark are working well, as is a service offered by Sinemia. And Alamo Drafthouse is set to unleash their own subscription service before 2019 is over. If these services are doing well, can MoviePass stage a comeback? That remains to be seen. In my humble opinion, the Icarus that is MoviePass flew far too close to the sun, and we're all just waiting for it to finally crash into the sea, wax wings aflame.