The US subscription-based cinema tickets had to get an emergency loan of $5m just to continue offering the service

The MoviePass app, which offers a subscription-based movie ticket service, went down on Thursday because the company ran out of money to pay partner cinemas. The company had to request an emergency $5m loan just to reinstate the service.

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Any of the app’s 3 million users that attempted to see a movie on Thursday were greeted instead by an error message claiming that their reservations could not be processed.

“I am AT the theater right now and spent way too much time trying to figure out why your app wouldn’t let me check in. Are you kidding me? I drove all the way here and there’s no offer to reimburse?? I can’t even see the movie now bc it’s TOO LATE,” wrote one user on the company’s Twitter page.

“We rushed to the movie theater only to find out that your service is down. What a waste of time and gas,” commented another.

The influx of customer service complaints about the error garnered a response by MoviePass on social media. “To our subscribers – we are aware [and are] investigating an issue that is preventing users from checking-in to movies this evening,” they said in a tweet.

It emerged the following day in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the company borrowed $5m in order to keep the service operational. The loan came with conditions that MoviePass must use the money to pay cinemas and other creditors.

MoviePass offers users the opportunity to watch three movies a month at any of its participating theater locations in the US for a monthly flat rate, with an option to upgrade to unlimited also available.

The long-term sustainability of its model has often seemed in doubt. In a previous SEC filing in May, MoviePass reported a $21.7m per month deficit and only $15.5m left available in cash. Its stock has fallen more than 95% since its high in October 2017.

In an effort to improve profitability, the company has enacted policies like preventing users from a seeing a movie twice and surge pricing for peak showtimes, but these tactics have failed to reverse the company’s poor results.

MoviePass has also faced increasing competition from rival services like AMC Stubs and Sinemia, both of which offer exclusive perks to subscribers, like free concession vouchers and access to Imax and 3D showings, which MoviePass is yet to offer.

In a statement on Friday afternoon, the company announced it was back up and running, adding that they “sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused from the temporary outage in the app over the past day”. Still, the long-term future of MoviePass is still up in the air. Some users recognise that the service was too affordable to last forever, and are just enjoying it while they can.

As one customer put it: “To all: please just enjoy the ride while it lasts. Personally I plan to ride this bus until the wheels fall off, engine drops out and a train smashes it to pieces.”