MoviePass Parent’s Stock Plunges Again to Record Low

[Ulquiorra]

Wall Street is continuing to give MoviePass a big thumbs-down as the stock of parent Helios and Matheson Analytics cratered Monday.


It plunged 26%, declining by 4 cents to 11 cents. The issue has lost more than 98% of its value this year and has continued to decline in recent weeks in the wake of AMC’s launch on June 20 of a discount pricing program, allowing customers to see three movies a week for a $19.95 monthly fee.


MoviePass has more than 3 million subscribers and allows customers the chance to see a movie a day for a monthly fee of $9.99. But Wall Street has been losing faith in whether MoviePass can survive by selling data about its customers and striking marketing partnerships. The issue took a major hit after a May 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that revealed it had $15.5 million in available cash at the end of April, plus $27.9 million on deposit with merchants while monthly expenses totaled $21.7 million.


On July 5, MoviePass launched a “peak pricing” surcharge for the most popular titles at the most popular showtimes. Helios and Matheson has scheduled a special meeting of shareholders for July 23 at the Empire State Building in New York City to increase the number of the company’s authorized common stock from 500 million to 5 billion and approve a one-time reverse stock split.


AMC Theatres, the world’s largest exhibitor, has been disparaging the popular subscription service as a house of cards for nearly a year as “unsustainable” because MoviePass pays exhibitors the full price of the tickets that it’s subscribers use. Its new discount offering is being run through its loyalty program AMC Stubs, and has been dubbed AMC Stubs A-List. In a clear dig towards MoviePass, a thorn in the exhibition business’ side because of its discounted ticketing, AMC calls its pricing “sustainable.”