MoviePass has seen quite the subscriber jump in the last year. Their unlimited subscription theater service has become quite popular, but it isn’t exactly profitable. The company has to subsidize tickets in order to run its current business model. This isn’t sustainable in the long run, so the company is making a bet with a new solution.
The company’s solution is to have a stake in movies themselves. According to Business Wire, MoviePass is launching a subsidiary called MoviePass Ventures that will “co-acquire” films alongside distributors. The details of this aren’t entirely clear at this point, MoviePass expects to benefit from the entire pipeline, from theater releases, streaming, and even in-flight viewing.
MoviePass is betting that its impact on movie performance will help bring more companies onboard in their venture. Normally, MoviePass accounts for around 3 percent of US box office sales, but that has jumped to 10 percent or more when it uses its app and overall platform to influence movie-going. Basically, MoviePass will take a share, and this could help the platform do more to promote a movie and help bring more success to itself.
The company is basically hoping to have more leverage than profits on the movies. With more leverage, MoviePass may be able to persuade partners to lower ticket pricing they offer, and convince more companies to buy viewing information it sells.
