Getty / Dave Kotinsky / Stringer
Mitch Lowe (left)
- MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe told Cheddar he'd received many offers from "very big media companies" to acquire MoviePass.
- He wouldn't say which companies, only that people "would recognize them."
- He also said the company would be profitable in 6-9 months, and that its cash burn had been reduced by 60%.
After a week that has given MoviePass subscribers whiplash and provoked confusion about the company's future, CEO Mitch Lowe seems optimistic about the months ahead - at least to the media.
This week, MoviePass announced significant changes, and rollbacks to previous controversial changes. The big news was that the movie-theater subscription service will now limit the number of movies subscribers can see to three per month (instead of one per day). And the new plan also rolled back the unpopular surge "peak" pricing, brought back big movies like "Mission Impossible" that MoviePass had recently banned, and kept the price at $9.95 a month rather than raising it to $14.95 a month.
Lowe sat down with Cheddar on Wednesday to discuss the changes and how the service could bounce back.
Lowe said he'd received offers to acquire MoviePass from "very big media companies that understand the value that we're generating." He wouldn't name which ones, though, only saying, "You would recognize them."
"It's attractive and interesting, but I'm focused on driving the business and repairing all these things that have not worked so well for the customer," he added.
Lowe also said he had a "great partnership" with Helios and Matheson Analytics, the company that took a majority stake in MoviePass last August (now up to 92%), and was instrumental in dropping its price and raising funds to cover the service's losses by issuing new shares to the public.
"They're great partners, they've been there all day, they've invested hundreds of millions of dollars into MoviePass and I know they'll always be there for us," Lowe said.
Lowe said 15% of subscribers had already converted to the new plan. He said MoviePass wouldn't become profitable for another six-to-nine months, but claimed changes had reduced the burn rate by 60%.
"The change of the model to three movies will get our burn to zero very quickly," Lowe said.
In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Helios and Matheson estimated its cash burn due to MoviePass at $45 million for both June and July. On Wednesday, Helios and Matheson stock was trading at $0.07 per share.