MoviePass CEO Expects to Be Profitable in 6-9 Months
*By Alex Heath*
MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe said Wednesday he expects the company to turn a profit in six to nine months, even though it's losing tens of millions of dollars a month and struggling to find a sustainable business model.
The company's recent changes to its MoviePass subscription, which limits customers to three movies a month for about $10, will "quickly" lower the company’s burn rate to zero and put it on the path toward profitability, Lowe said in an interview on Cheddar.
Most MoviePass subscribers — 85 percent, according to Lowe — see three movies or fewer a month, and 15 percent of MoviePass’s over 3 million subscribers have converted to the new plan introduced Monday.
“We know that three works,” Lowe said of the new restriction on the number of movies that subscribers can watch each month. “Three is our last change.”
The CEO and former Netflix executive rebuffed concerns that MoviePass could run out of money before the end of the year. The company took out a $6.2 million emergency loan to stay afloat two weeks ago, and said in a July SEC filing that it would seek to raise about $1.2 billion in equity and debt over the next three years.
“Our mission is survival and then success,” Lowe said.
MoviePass has received "many offers" from "very big media companies" that want to buy its business, according to Lowe. He declined to name any of the companies that have approached MoviePass about an acquisition. A college student-led venture capital firm called Triton Funds recently expressed interest in buying MoviePass, but it's unclear if those talks have progressed.
Shares of MoviePass's parent company Helios and Matheson have plunged roughly 99 percent in the last year as MoviePass losses continue to climb. The stock was trading at roughly $0.06 per share on Wednesday, despite the company's attempt to raise the price through a bold reverse stock split in late July.
For the full interview with MoviePass's CEO Mitch Lowe, [click here.] (https://cheddar.com/videos/moviepass-ceo-recent-movie-cap-is-final-change-to-subscription-service)
Some small grocery stores and neighborhood convenience stores are eager for the U.S. government shutdown to end and for their customers to start receiving federal food aid again. Late last month, the Trump administration froze funding for the SNAP benefits that about 42 million Americans use to buy groceries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says about 74% of the assistance was spent last year at superstores like Walmart and supermarkets like Kroger. Around 14% went to smaller stores that are more accessible to SNAP beneficiaries. A former director of the United Nations World Food Program says SNAP is not only a social safety net for families but a local economic engine that supports neighborhood businesses.
Andy Baehr, Head of Product at CoinDesk Indices, breaks down crypto’s Black Friday crash, Bitcoin dipping under $100K, and what’s driving the market rout.
Billionaire Warren Buffett warned shareholders Monday that many companies will fare better than his Berkshire Hathaway in the decades ahead as Father Time catches up
Chris Marquette of POLITICO breaks down how the FAA is cutting flights and facing a critical shortage of air‑traffic controllers amid the government shutdown.
Dr. Manuele Aufiero, CEO & Co‑Founder of Sizable En a groundbreaking undersea energy‑storage technology powering the global shift to clean, scalable power.
Paul Fipps, President of Global Customer Operations at ServiceNow, breaks down the company’s earnings beat, 5‑for‑1 stock split and booming enterprise AI demand