MoviePass Resumes Movie-A-Day Model After Removing It Last Month

Last week it was reported that MoviePass, the US-based movie-going membership service, might be about to ditch its popular subscription package that allows daily theater visits for a too-good-to-be-true price of $10. The offer disappeared from its website, with a less generous package offered in its place. However, the movie-a-day monthly plan has now returned.

Since April 13, the only offer that was available was a $29.95 for three-months plan, that only allowed users to see four movies in a month. It also threw in a trial for iHeartRadio's All Access on-demand streaming package, but for moviegoers it was clearly an inferior deal compared to being able to see a film on every single day of the month.

This week, the original offer returned to the site, with MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe explaining that that was always the plan. "We never planned to abandon the flagship product that everybody loves," he told Variety. "Any time we've done a promotional package, we've taken the monthly plan off our site."

Last month, Lowe stated that he didn't know if the movie-a-day offer would be available again. However, now the package is back, he defended the decision not to tell the public that it was only a temporarily removal. "It's marketing 101," he said. "We wanted to focus everybody on this partnership promotion. If people knew the [movie-a-day] plan was coming back, they might not be interested in the iHeartRadio deal."

The other change that MoviePass has instigated is prohibiting its users from seeing the same movie multiple times with their pass. Lowe explained that the company believes some families are using one card numerous times amongst different family members, and that this rule change would prohibit what it sees as fraud.

There has been much speculation that MoviePass's business model is not sustainable. The company pays theaters full price for the tickets its customers buy, and the company has been bleeding money and losing stock value. However, Lowe downplayed the company's financial problems. "We have a constantly evolving business model," he said. "We're getting more and more occasional moviegoers and cutting back on fraud and abuse. I feel very confident about our trend lines and I know we're going to continue as a going concern and continue to be popular."