MoviePass Raising Price & Cutting Access To Major Releases
NEW YORK (CNN Money) - MoviePass is making big changes in a bid to stay alive. The service, which allows subscribers see one movie every day in the theater, is raising the price of its standard plan from $10.00 to $14.95 per month. The new price will take effect within the next 30 days.
And, some major releases will be "limited in their availability" on the service for the first two weeks that they are in theaters. It is still not clear how "limited" those films will be to MoviePass users. The company did say that big movies may be made available through promotions.
MoviePass subscribers have already reported seeing such restrictions. For example, this past weekend's new blockbuster "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" was unavailable for at least some MoviePass customers.
MoviePass has more than 3 million subscribers, but analysts have questioned whether it can stay in business. Stock in its parent company, Helios and Matheson, has dropped more than 99 percent since last fall. The company's market value has plunged from $8.8 billion to less than $1 million.
The stock more than doubled on Tuesday after MoviePass announced the price increase, but it quickly gave up all of that gain. The stock was trading at 79 cents at midmorning.
In a new "plan for profitability," the company also noted that cost-cutting has helped bring its cash-burning under control. It has been blowing through $20 million to $40 million each month, according to regulatory filings.
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