*By Conor White*
MoviePass is raising its monthly subscription price and limiting the movies that customers can see during opening weekends, raising doubts over the struggling entertainment service's future.
The decision to raise the monthly price to almost $15 from $10 shows that the company's business model made it difficult to [pay back exhibitors](https://www.businessinsider.com/moviepass-owner-financial-statement-should-scare-investors-2018-4) for the full-price movie tickets scooped up by the discount service's subscribers, said Jason Guerrasio, senior entertainment reporter at Business Insider.
MoviePass's strategy, which permits subscribers to see more films for less than a full-price ticket, may now be its downfall, Guerrasio said Wednesday during an interview on Cheddar.
The service sold more than a million tickets to "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Black Panther," two of the highest grossing films of all time. "Those are millions and millions of dollars, full ticket prices, that they had to go back and give back to the exhibitor," Guerrasio said.
MoviePass had allowed subscribers to see unlimited films for $10 a month, three films for $8. The new plan caps users' ability to see films on opening weekend if they play in more than 1,000 theaters nationwide. For big titles, subscribers are asked to wait two weeks.
MoviePass's parent company, Helios and Matheson, has been losing $20 million a month since last September, when its shares were trading for more than $2,700. A share is now worth less than a dollar.
MoviePass was founded in 2011, and found a wide audience last summer, when it slashed prices from as much as $50 a month to $10. It had 3 million subscribers in June.
Theater chains have responded aggressively to MoviePass's popularity, and many have launched their own competitive options: AMC now sells "Stubs A-List" subscriptions, which allow moviegoers to see three films a week for $20 a month.
"AMC basically created their service to dig at MoviePass," Guerrasio said. "They had been wanting to do it for years, and then they finally pulled the trigger when MoviePass basically beat at the hornet's nest of AMC, the biggest movie theater company in the world."
Guerrasio said that MoviePass has effectively disrupted the movie-theater business much like the music file-sharing service Napster upended the music business.
"MoviePass, whatever happens to them now, they've definitely started something now that everyone else is going to use," Guerrasio said.
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/is-this-the-end-of-moviepass-3).
John Bencich, CEO of Achieve Life Sciences, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of Achieve Life Sciences discusses a new plant-based compound that's being used to fight nicotine addiction; President & CEO OF DiaMedica Therapeutics explains a new ischemic stroke treatment option that expands the window for effective therapy for stroke patients; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Asteroid Rush.'
Catching you up on today's entertainment headlines with the Tribeca Film Festival has kicked off in NYC, "Black Adam," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dropped its first full trailer, the musical "Come From Away" based on a true story set during 9/11 will be closing on Broadway this October, and more.
Survivors of Larry Nassar, including Olympian Simone Biles, are seeking $1 billion in damages from the FBI due to its failure to investigate the former gymnastics team doctor convicted of committing years of serial sexual abuse of minors. Jack Queen, a senior reporter at Law360, joined Cheddar News to break down the legal grounds of this case. "This is one of the biggest black eyes that the Bureau has faced in generations, quite frankly, and the FBI has taken full responsibility and admitted that it completely botched this investigation," he said. "So, there's a lot of pressure to settle."
The Elevate Prize Foundation is donating $10,000 to different grassroots organizations based on a theme every month to help scale their work, focusing on a different theme each time. Upcoming prizes will help uplift an organization supporting the LGBTQ community and one mobilizing to help end gun violence. The foundation's CEO Carolina Garcia Jayaram joined Cheddar to discuss the initiative and why it's important to uplift these grassroots organizations. "We are identifying social entrepreneurs around the world to help them scale their work. but the ultimate purpose of that is to create the first-ever fanbase for good," she said. "We're trying to make good famous and by inspiring people to think about the role they can play in doing good in the world."
With real estate being a largely male-dominated industry, Stephanie Shojaee, vice president and chief marketing officer at development company Shoma Group, joined Cheddar News to discuss how she took on the gender gap for women to achieve leadership roles, starting at her own company. “It's been very important to teach all the women that work here, especially the younger ones, that they shouldn't change themselves," she said. "You need to be happy with who you are and just keep breaking barriers."
We are already starting to feel the effects of summer. Heat waves in Texas and California are already sending temperatures soaring. That could spell trouble for the nation's power supply. there are new concerns about outages in many areas of the country. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier explains the two main causes of blackouts, and what states are doing to keep the lights on and the air conditioning running.
If you have been on the road this past year, you've probably seen more accidents on the road than you ever have. You're not wrong. Traffic fatalities are not only increasing they are hitting historic highs. Almost 43,000 people died in motor vehicle accidents in 2021. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier investigates - and finds out why.
U.S. stocks close Tuesday at session highs after a subpar start to the trading day. Tim Chubb, Chief Investment Officer at the wealth advisory firm, Girard, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss. 'We're starting to see the moderation of three core things -- we've seen the moderation of prices, we've seen the moderation of wage growth we've seen in the labor market, and we've also seen a moderation of job openings,' he says.
The victims from the USA gymnastics sexual abuse scandal continue to seek justice. Survivors of Larry Nassar are seeking more than one-billion dollars from the FBI for failing to stop the convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations. According to a report released by the Justice Department's Inspector General, FBI agents knew
in July of 2015 that Nassar was accused of abusing gymnasts; however, Nassar wasn't arrested until December of 2016. The group that filed the claim includes Olympic medalist Simone Biles and around 90 other women. Louise Radnofsky, sports reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
