Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MoviePass Having Outage Issues Because It Couldn't Pay Its Bills (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the well-that's-embarrassing dept.

Popular movie-ticked subscription service MoviePass experienced an outage on Thursday, still ongoing for some, which the company attributed to "technical issues with our card-based check-in process," on its Twitter feed. But its SEC filing Thursday indicated that the problem was really cash flow. From a report: The filing by its parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, explained an emergency loan the company had taken out: The $5.0 million cash proceeds received from the Demand Note will be used by the Company to pay the Company's merchant and fulfillment processors. If the Company is unable to make required payments to its merchant and fulfillment processors, the merchant and fulfillment processors may cease processing payments for MoviePass. ("MoviePass"), which would cause a MoviePass service interruption. Such a service interruption occurred on July 26, 2018. Such service interruptions could have a material adverse effect on MoviePass' ability to retain its subscribers.

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. I think I have seen this movie before. by sinij · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I have seen this movie before.

    1. Re:I think I have seen this movie before. by jwhyche · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When you open a all you can eat buffet best to make sure you have enough for everyone to eat.

      -Me Year of the Clown

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  2. Re:Facebook profits... by Discgolferusa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Makes me long for the good old days of Pets.com..... Man I miss that sock puppet!

  3. Re:Math is hard by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They charge people 10 bucks a month, then buy those people as many movie tickets as they want. How can this possibly lead to financial problems?

    They're owned by an analytics company. The goal wasn't to make money on the passes, it was to make money on the data. Where you go/what you do before/after a movie, broken down by age ranges, race, income level, location, all of that could potentially be sold to movie chains, restaurants, etc. MoviePass either underestimated how much money they would burn through until the data selling business became sustainable, or overestimated how quickly that would happen. Either way, no big loss. If the tech sector crashes, this will be why: data isn't worth as much (or as useful) as people think it is.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil