Did a whole bunch of you try to use your MoviePass last night to see Mission: Impossible-Fallout? How’d that go for you? Because for many subscribers to the service found that the only thing impossible was their ability to do so. In short, MoviePass ran out of money last night.
That’s right, according to an SEC filing, parent company Helios & Matheson had to borrow $5M just to keep operations running, just as thousands of subscribers were hitting theaters to watch Tom Cruise kill himself for our entertainment pleasure. During the “service interruption” those subscribers were unable to check-in to the MoviePass app. Here’s the statement from the official filing:
“The $5.0 million cash proceeds received from the Demand Note will be used by the Company to pay the Company’s merchant and fulfillment processors. If the Company is unable to make required payments to its merchant and fulfillment processors, the merchant and fulfillment processors may cease processing payments for MoviePass, Inc. (‘MoviePass’), which would cause a MoviePass service interruption. Such a service interruption occurred on July 26, 2018.”
MoviePass tried to hide what happened by tweeting that the difficulties were technical rather than financial. Because how quickly would their subscribers flee if the company tweeted “Who got snaps on the petro?” like MC Eiht in Menace II Society?
Actually, that would be kinda awesome.
Financial issues have always dogged MoviePass, and the emergence of similar competitors hasn’t helped. But Helios & Matheson have always maintained they were flush with cash and in it for the long haul. This does not appear to be the case.
I’d say to rush out and use those subscriptions while you can, but that’s what caused the problem in the first place! [Business Insider]
We are still experiencing technical issues with our card-based check-in process and we are diligently working to resolve the issue. In the interim e-ticketing is working. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we resolve this issue.— MoviePass (@MoviePass) July 27, 2018
We’ve determined this issue is not with our card processor partners and will be continuing to work on a fix throughout this evening and night. If you have not headed to the theater yet, we recommend waiting for a resolution or utilizing e-ticketing which is not impacted.— MoviePass (@MoviePass) July 27, 2018
