MoviePass Has Another Reason for Users to Avoid Its Service

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 9:25PM EST · Published Jul 6, 6:20AM EDT

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MoviePass Has Another Reason for Users to Avoid Its Service — © razihusin / iStock

Troubled movie subscription service MoviePass has over 3 million subscribers. They face several issues that may make them flee or that may make potential new subscribers wary. The newest is that MoviePass will charge users more money than their standard fees during some hours or on some days.

MoviePass made note of its new policy:

Peak pricing is a new dynamic pricing system based on the demand for particular showtimes. After taking into consideration demand for a title, date, or time of day is higher, subscribers may be asked to pay a small additional fee depending on the level of demand. You can avoid this peak surcharge by choosing an alternative date or film, and every subscriber will be able to waive one peak fee per month.

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Another major reason people may pass on MoviePass is that the largest theater chain in America, AMC, has its own subscriber service. AMC Stubs was launched last month, and MoviePass may not get people into every film. Finally, there is the chance MoviePass may not survive much longer. Parent Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: HNMY) is short on money and may be unable to raise what it needs to operate well into the future. Its share price has plunged this year.

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The biggest problem with the new surge pricing is that it is not part of the pact MoviePass has with its subscribers. They suddenly have been asked to pay more than what was “promised” them, at least as far as many see it. The current price plans are “unlimited,” which for $9.95 allows people to “see a movie every day.” The “limited” plan at $7.95 month lets people see three movies. In either case, the surge pricing both was not part of the original deal and also was unexpected.

People expect to get what they pay for. MoviePass has changed that part of its deal with subscribers and given them reason to abandon the service.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.