This chart shows the rapid growth of MoviePass, which has passed 2 million subscribers - here's when its CEO says it will be profitable
- MoviePass has hit the 2 million subscribers mark.
- The movie theater subscription service reached the milestone less than a month after getting to 1.5 million.
- MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe says the company will be profitable at between 3 million and 4 million subscribers.
Another day, another milestone for the company that is disrupting the movie theater business.
MoviePass announced on Thursday that it had exceeded 2 million subscribers. This is less than a month after the company announced it had hit 1.5 million subscribers.
The app has become the talk of the movie business since the summer, when Helios and Matheson Analytics took majority ownership of the company and drastically dropped the monthly fee to a shocking $9.95 per month (to see one movie per day).
Some in the industry believe theater exhibitors should welcome MoviePass with open arms as the data its collecting (and selling to exhibitors and studios) will only help the entire industry know what today's moviegoers want to see. But others aren't so sure.
AMC, the world's largest theater chain, has been playing hardball with MoviePass and not giving it discounted tickets. This likely led to MoviePass recently dropping 10 AMC locations off the app.
But it doesn't seem to have slowed down the growth.
Here's a look at its staggering raise since it changed its monthly subscription price to $9.95:
And though the major question around the industry is how in the world MoviePass is going to continue to stay in business while paying so much for tickets, MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe recently gave The Hollywood Reporter a blunt answer of when they should become profitable.
"We figure between 3 million and 4 million subscribers," he said.
In regards to other means to monetize the business, Lowe added:
"We're signing five contracts a week with independent theaters where we get a lower cost on tickets and that will ultimately lead to a piece of concession sales, and we have a team in L.A. striking deals with studios."
When asked how much cash they currently have to operate, he answered: "Plenty."
At the rate MoviePass is growing, the company will hit 3 to 4 million subscribers in a few months, but some industry insiders have expressed doubts to Business Insider about whether MoviePass has a path to profitability without discounted tickets from the big chains like AMC and Regal.