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MoviePass perils
It’s not the birthday present MoviePass wanted.
On the one-year anniversary of MoviePass slashing its monthly pass price, shares of parent company Helios and Matheson hit an all-time low after it reported an operating loss of $126.6 million.
Helios, whose share value seems stuck at around 5 cents, offered little hope of a happy ending in an earnings statement.
“Without additional funding, the company will not have sufficient funds to meet its obligations within one year,” Helios said. “These factors raise substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The cash-strapped subscription service, which until last week allowed users to go to one movie per day for a flat fee of $9.95 per month, burned through more than $70 million per month last quarter.
It had previously reported a cash burn of $21 million per month.
Chief Executive Mitch Lowe told The Post last week that investors believe in the sustainability of a new pricing plan, but are waiting to see what percentage of the service’s 3-million-plus subscribers renew at the threemovies-per-month rate.
Lowe declined to name any potential investors.
The downfall of MoviePass’ parent company’s stock, however, coupled with mounting losses, has spurred one shareholder to try to bring Helios to court.
The suit, filed in New York, accuses Helios boss Ted Farnsworth and Chief Financial Officer Stuart Benson of masterminding a “scheme and course of conduct which was intended to, and did, deceive the investing public.”
A spokesperson for Farnsworth did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MoviePass on Wednesday began switching its monthly users to the three-films-permonth plan.
It’s the latest move by the service to reduce its cash burn. MoviePass has previously prevented users from seeing films more than once, introduced surge pricing for popular films and showtimes and banned its users from seeing first-run blockbuster movies.
Last week, Lowe confirmed to The Post that MoviePass was making users choose between two films a day as it limps along until a majority of its subscribers are on the new three movies plan.
“We’re just trying to save our service to be able to be available long term,” Lowe said.