Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. HMNY, -87.23%, the parent of the MoviePass cinema-ticket subscription service, said Wednesday it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, allowing a court to sell its remaining assets and wind down all operations. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company, which shuttered MoviePass back in September, said board members Prathap Singh, Gavriel Ralbag, Muralikrishna Gadiyaram and Joseph Fried have tendered their resignations, leaving the company with no remaining board members. Parthasarathy Krishnan has resigned as the Interim chief executive and Robert Damon has resigned as interim chief financial officer. MoviePass made a splash when it first started offering users unlimited entry to films for a monthly subscription price that was way below what was needed to cover the costs. The company was soon under water and was recording million-dollar monthly deficits. Executives said they were hoping to generate revenue by monetizing user data and selling ads for movies and theater chains, plans that never came to fruition. Before launching MoviePass, Helios and Matheson was a small data-analytics company. The stock has fallen to zero.
Kyussblack on January 29th, 2020 at 16:46 UTC »
Rest in power movie pass. I saw so many mediocre movies because of this service. It was awesome.
Tigertemprr on January 29th, 2020 at 16:30 UTC »
I used their service for ~70 movies and it was so nice while it lasted (and actually worked). As is, there was no way it was ever going to be profitable. Theaters weren't going to be bullied into making the deals MP wanted. They should've started at a more sensible sub like 4-movies/$10 per month which is still a great deal that would've attracted a similarly large customer base.
I distinctly remember all the matinees for mediocre movies and slightly more packed rooms with patrons who knew what's up, flashing their red plastic cards at each other... It was an exciting time for movie-goers. If anything, MoviePass showed that there's a bunch of us who want to go to the movies, if it were just more affordable. Theater owners should take note.
themikesem on January 29th, 2020 at 16:07 UTC »
I'll never forget the summer of 2018. I took a month off between jobs and signed up for unlimited moviepass. Probably saw 20 films in theaters that month. Even then I knew it wouldn't last. Thanks for the memories MP.