Photo : AP

Last week, MoviePass’s movie-a-day subscription plan appeared to be dead. The companies CEO, Mitch Lowe, set off a cry from fans when he said in an interview that he couldn’t commit to the plan returning when a special promotional offer expired. Welp, now its back, and Lowe is explaining why he said what he said.


Anyone who truly loves MoviePass’s movie theater subscription service lives in constant fear that the day will come when the seemingly unsustainable $10-per-month price tag to see a movie every day will come to an end. So, when Lowe told The Hollywood Reporter he just didn’t know if the deal that made it famous would come back, many people saw the writing on the wall. On Wednesday, the CEO explained to Variety that MoviePass “never planned to abandon the flagship product that everybody loves.” He simply didn’t feel it was right to take attention away from a special promotion the company was running in which subscribers are allowed to see four movies per month and get a free trial of iHeartRadio’s All Access on-demand streaming package.

“It’s marketing 101,” he told Variety, “If people knew the [movie-a-day] plan was coming back, they might not be interested in the iHeartRadio deal.” That’s probably accurate. Last week, one reader wrote to us complaining that they received their subscription as a gift card, and since they got in during the special promotion they were upset that they’d never get the full deal. “Now I’m stuck with the four movie option and an iHeartRadio subscription I’m pretty sure no one wants,” they wrote.


In an email to Gizmodo, a MoviePass spokesperson explained the company is “exploring different options for future plan offerings, always taking our users’ usage patterns and preferences into consideration. We will communicate any further updates as we have them.” Considering that MoviePass has turned off the unlimited option for new subscribers when it does special promotions, now might be a good time to sign up.

[Variety]