MoviePass, the fast-growing but troubled subscription service that offered movie buffs a variety of plans at discount prices to see films, said Friday that it was shutting down.

The company, which became a cultural phenomenon for its all-you-can-eat movie buffet but struggled with investors to find a functioning business model, said in a letter to subscribers that it would close down Saturday morning because efforts to recapitalize the business “have not been successful to date.”

In many ways, MoviePass was a victim of its own success.

Founded in 2011, the company didn’t take off until 2017, led by Mitch Lowe, a former executive with Netflix and Redbox, and Theodore Farnsworth, the chief executive of Helios + Matheson, the publicly traded entity that acquired MoviePass that year.

MoviePass’s model paid movie theaters full price for every admission, with expectations of making money because in traditional subscription economics, more people sign up for a service than use it. But that model blew up in 2017 when the new leaders, Mr. Lowe and Mr. Farnsworth, slashed the fee to $10 a month. That low price entitled members to see a movie every day in theaters, including new releases.