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MoviePass has shut down for ‘several weeks’ to update its app

MoviePass has shut down for ‘several weeks’ to update its app

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‘There’s never a good time to have to do this’

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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

MoviePass, the long-embattled film subscription service, has shut down for “several weeks” in order to complete work on an updated version of its app and to recapitalize for when the service relaunches. “There’s never a good time to have to do this,” MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe said in a statement, “but to complete the improved version of our app, one that we believe will provide a much better experience for our subscribers, it has to be done.” Lowe’s statement promised “an enhanced technology platform, which is in the final stages of completion,” in the upcoming app.

The service shut down on July 4th at 5AM ET, and MoviePass has not announced when it will come back online. During this period, MoviePass will not accept new sign-ups, and existing subscribers will not be charged while the service is offline. Subscribers will also be automatically credited for the downtime once the service is back online. 

The shutdown comes less than four months after the service announced yet another set of pricing plans, following the revamped plans it announced at the end of 2018. In its latest iteration, the service once again offers “unlimited” movie screenings for a single monthly fee, but it reserves the right to limit which screenings customers can attend based on their location and historical usage and on popular showtimes and movie titles. The moves seemed designed to prevent people from actually using the service by cutting access to popular and first-release films. In April, Business Insider estimated that MoviePass had lost approximately 90 percent of its user base over the course of a calendar year, though MoviePass disputes these numbers.