New York Post

MoviePass’ latest edit: 3 films a mo.

- By NICOLAS VEGA nvega@nypost.com

In a plot twist worthy of director M. Night Shyamalan, MoviePass revealed Monday that it will drasticall­y cut the number of movies its subscriber­s can see — to three a month.

The move — from its current movie-a-day policy — is aimed at reducing the amount of cash the company burns through each month.

MoviePass, which pays full price for every ticket its users buy and un- til last week touted the “Any movie. Any theater. Any day” slogan on its Web site, has seen its stock lose nearly all its value over the past two weeks as its app has crashed over and over due to a lack of funds.

Under the revised policy, set to begin Aug. 15, the $9.95-a-month fee remains unchanged but MoviePass will drop its surge pricing and its policy of making users submit photos of their ticket stubs.

MoviePass may still block users from seeing popular films on opening weekend, saying only that “many major studio first-run films” will be available.

The announceme­nt of the new measures sent shares of MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson up 1 cent, to 8.3 cents.

“Any industrywi­de disruption like MoviePass requires a tremendous amount of testing, pivoting, and learning,” Chief Executive Mitch Lowe said in a statement, adding that the new pricing will “help to stabilize our business model.”

Lowe noted that 85 percent of subscriber­s will notice “no impact whatsoever” from the change since they see fewer than four films a month. Still, 450,000 of the company’s 3 million subscriber­s will feel a pinch.

MoviePass last Tuesday said it would raise its prices to $14.95 a month “in the next 30 days” — but that new price has been scrapped.

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