MoviePass Had 2 Million Subscribers, but How Many People Use It?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 3:35AM EST · Published Feb 9, 6:20AM EST

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MoviePass Had 2 Million Subscribers, but How Many People Use It? — © Thinkstock

There has been a great deal of debate about whether MoviePass, the subscription plan that allows people to get movie tickets at a discount, is a success. Its subscriber count moved past 2 million, but it is not clear how many of those subscribers use the service or whether they will use it long term.

The press release read:

Less than one month after announcing its milestone of 1.5 million subscribers, MoviePass™, the nation’s premier movie theater subscription service and a majority-owned subsidiary of Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (Nasdaq: HMNY) announced today that MoviePass™ has exceeded 2 Million Subscribers.

“We’re giving people a reason to go back to the movie theaters and they’re going in droves. With awards season here, we hope we can make Hollywood and exhibitors very happy by filling seats with eager audiences.”

The weak point of the comments is that they do not have context, which means that “droves” means little.

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Wall Street does not, for the most part, believe in the future of the parent. Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: HMNY) shares trade at $8.34, down from a 52-week high of $38.86. The shares have been besieged by short sellers, many of whom think the company should not be in the movie business at all. It is an IT consulting firm, and MoviePass has nothing to do with its core business.

MoviePass also has been in fights with theater chains about the service. In particular, MoviePass removed several AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) theaters from the service. MoviePass cannot flourish unless it has good relationships with most theater owners.

The largest question about MoviePass is how many of the people who sign up for the $9.95 a month service take advantage of it. Two million is a large number, unless many of the people are disappointed with the service and do not continue to use the plan. One of the most prominent features on the MoviePass homepage is a search box for theaters that use the service. MoviePass says it is accepted at 4,000 theaters.

Helios and Matheson Analytics has yet to offer any data that show how MoviePass does financially. The fact that it has 2 million subscribers does not mean much.

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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.