New downloads of MoviePass have plummeted as the service has introduced unpopular features
- Mobile-data insight company SensorTower found that first-time downloads of the MoviePass app have dropped 76% since June.
- Sharp declines correspond with the introduction of unpopular features, such as surge pricing and limiting movies.
- The decrease also corresponded with the plummeting stock of MoviePass' parent company, Helios & Matheson Analytics (HMNY).
Movie-theater subscription service MoviePass saw a sudden and dramatic surge in subscribers when it decreased its price to $9.95 a month last year. But this year has been a serious test for the company, and it hasn't exactly passed with flying colors.
New data from mobile-data insight company SensorTower found that first-time downloads of the MoviePass app had decreased a whopping 76% since June - from 330,000 then to 80,000 in August - as the service has undergone numerous unpopular changes in an effort to stay afloat. SensorTower said it generated the figures through its proprietary models of the App Store and Google Play, "which are able to accurately estimate the downloads of any app based on their daily rankings on the stores."
Here is the chart from SensorTower:
Sharp declines corresponded with changes to the service (seen above). Downloads dropped from 330,000 in June to about 240,000 in July after MoviePass announced its unpopular surge pricing feature, in which users would have to pay extra for popular movies during busy showtimes.
Downloads then dropped to 80,000 in August after MoviePass announced it would be increasing the monthly price of the service and limiting blockbuster movies. It quickly rolled back these changes, and introduced a new plan last month at $9.95 for three movies a month. As the company has been slowly implementing this plan, though, it's limited the movies that users can see in theaters.
The only period of monthly growth was from April to May when MoviePass brought back its one-ticket-a-day plan. The service had briefly capped the number of movies a month to four for new subscribers in a $29.95 three-month promotional plan that included a free trial of iHeartRadio All-Access.
App downloads also correspond with MoviePass owner Helios & Matheson Analytics' (HMNY) plummeting stock over recent months (seen above).
Next month, HMNY will attempt to convince shareholders to approve a one-time reverse stock split of up to 1-for-500 shares. The company already tried to stabilize the stock price with a 1-for-250 split last month.
On Monday, HMNY stock was trading at around $0.02.
MoviePass did not respond to a request for comment.