MoviePass will no longer offer access to major movie releases from within the mobile app, according to a new report out of Business Insider which credits “a source familiar with the matter” for the details. According to the information, MoviePass CEO, Mitch Lowe, confirmed the new change in direction during an all-hands meeting held today. This is now expected to be an ongoing move in spite of the initial confirmation being for the next two big upcoming releases “Christopher Robin” (expected to hit movie theaters on August 3) and “The Meg” (due to arrive on August 10). In fact, the change is understood to be already in effect with subscribers unable to purchase tickets for “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” from the app.
In spite of these details now coming to light, it still remains to be seen how this will affect the service’s operations in general. For example, what will be defined as a ‘big movie’ going forward, or whether users will still be able to see a major movie at a MoviePass e-ticketing theater – as the current language used suggests for now the change is primarily app-based. In addition, MoviePass had only recently announced “Peak Pricing” which was designed to add on an additional cost to tickers for subscribers who wanted to see a “popular” movie during high demand times. If the service does completely remove the option for subscribers to book tickets to big movies and/or especially during busier times, it remains unclear whether Peak Pricing will also remain in effect considering it was largely conceived to fulfill the same purpose.
While this is likely to be seen by MoviePass customers as a negative move that offers less value than before, it has become increasingly clear over the past hours and days that the service is struggling to operate under the current climate. For example, the company has experienced two outages within the last week (the latest of which occurred today), while also having to apply to the U.S. SEC for $5 million to keep the business operating. Therefore, it would seem that regardless of any decrease in value seen with the subscription service, this very well could be the result of a necessary evil if MoviePass is to continue to operate at all.