MoviePass app downloads have decreased 76% since June: Report

Hollis Johnson/Business
Insider

• 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
  films.
• 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:

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 films 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 films. It quickly rolled
back these changes, and introduced a new plan last month at $9.95
for three films a month. As the company has been slowly
implementing this plan, though, it’s limited the films 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 films a month to four for new subscribers in a $29.95
three-month promotional plan that included a free trial of
iHeartRadio All-Access.

SensorTower

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.