MoviePass Admits To "Going Through A Rough Patch" But Compares Problems To Uber's Beginnings

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After the week that MoviePass is having, many have expected the company to go bankrupt any minute. However, as the subscription service touted in a recent tweet, “Talk of our demise is greatly exaggerated.”

But finally, the company is willing to admit it’s on shaky ground.

In a new statement from MoviePass, which comes after a week that was nothing but horrible headlines, from multiple outages to unannounced changes to their plan, the subscription service admits to falling on hard times. But as they explain it, this is the price you pay for being an innovator.

“This is exactly the attitude the taxicab industry took when Uber entered their market,” said the press release (via Deadline). “Overall, we believe as much as 6% of the industry’s total box office receipts can be traced to our loyal subscribers. It’s clear that because of MoviePass, more people are seeing more movies at fair prices. Instead of wishing us away, the industry, particularly the independent film producers, should be congratulating and supporting us. Absent MoviePass, exhibitors are fighting to preserve profits in a declining box office environment. That’s the doomed strategy.”

READ MORE: As MoviePass Struggles To Survive, AMC Gloats Its Subscription Service Has “Far Exceeded” Projections

“Yes, we’re going through a rough patch not unlike what other disruptive enterprises experienced in their early days. Much of our issues can be attributed to the unprecedented growth in a business that just 12 months ago did not exist,” the statement continued.

That last bit of the statement is truly interesting. The “rough patch” MoviePass is referring to is the fact that through all the recent drama, money has apparently dried up and their parent company, Helios and Matheson, is currently trading at an all-time low of $0.13 per share. In fact, if Helios and Matheson aren’t able to bring that stock price above $1 in a little less than a month, the company will be delisted by NASDAQ, which will almost certainly spell the end of the MoviePass dream.

It’s also interesting to point out that MoviePass is one of the rare companies that claim that “unprecedented growth” is a negative thing. While most businesses looking to make money label “growth” as a necessary aspect of that plan, the subscription service’s very own model makes “unprecedented growth” mean more and more losses. As we’ve said before, never forget that MoviePass is in the business of selling customers a service that it doesn’t want them to use.

So even with cutesy tweets (as seen below), the troubles are far from over for the company, and for those of us looking to use our subscriptions to see “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” we still have to wait until next weekend. What a service!