During MoviePass‘ parent companies quarterly (Helios and Matheson Analytics) report they announced they would be adding a few new features to the popular cinema subscription service.
- Ability to attend premium screens (e.g 3D, IMAX) for a one time fee per screening. Rather than this increasing the cost of your monthly plan you’d instead just pay a surcharge when attending one of these showings.
- Addition of a family plan. Currently everybody attending a screening via MoviePass needs their own phone, this makes it impossible for most families to see a movie together all using MoviePass (unless young children have a phone of their own).
CEO of Helios & Matheson also stated that they would be making a large acquisition sometimes during Cannes. He also said that MoviePass had access to a $300 million line of credit and at the current burn rate this gives them 17 more months without having to raise any additional capital (previously news outlets were reporting they had only $15.5 million in cash on hand and another $27.90 million on deposit with a burn rate of $22 million monthly). It’s important to note that a recent SEC filing does not show this line of credit as Business Insider points out.
The ability to see a premium screening is a feature that competitor Sinemia has offered since launch. When comparing the plans Sinemia offer they basically charge an additional $3 per month to see one premium screening so it will be interesting to see how much the MoviePass surcharge is for premium screenings. Sinemia also offers a Sinemia for two plan that isn’t quite a family plan but at least lets two people see the same screening and only requiring one phone. I personally don’t see how either service will survive long term. It seems that there two main attempts at profitability are to try and receive a percentage of concession purchases (something cinemas are unlikely to want to concede) and the selling of data they collect.
Hat tip to MtM
