MoviePass laid off roughly a third of its staff, including its entire team focused on relationships with movie theaters

[ad_1]

MoviePass

  • MoviePass laid off at least seven of its employees this week, multiple sources close to the company told Business Insider.
  • The layoffs included MoviePass’ two-person exhibitor relations team, which was responsible for helping MoviePass build relationships with movie theaters.
  • The full-time staff is currently at 12, according to one source close to the company. At the company’s peak, it had around 40 staffers.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The downfall of MoviePass continues.

This week, the New York City-based movie-ticket subscription service laid off at least seven employees, including the office manager, members of the marketing department, and the two-person exhibitor relations team, multiple sources close to the company told Business Insider.

MoviePass did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The firing of the exhibitor relations team, whose sole purpose was to build relationships with movie theaters, is a major loss for a company that needs connections with movie theaters for discounts on bulk tickets, as well as advertising and marketing deals.

The MoviePass staff is now down to around 12 full-time employees, one source close to the company said. There are also a few consultants who work for the company. At the company’s height in 2017, the staff numbered around 40. 

Since then, the company has fallen on hard times.

Read more: The definitive story of how a controversial Florida businessman blew up MoviePass and burned hundred of millions

MoviePass’ parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, blew through hundreds of millions of dollars trying to keep MoviePass afloat and was delisted from the Nasdaq in February after its stock had been trading below $1 for months. To curb its cash burn, MoviePass added unpopular restrictions to its app, which contributed to a drastic fall in subscriber count. Internal data that Business Insider obtained in April showed MoviePass’ number of subscribers had fallen from over 3 million to about 225,000.

During MoviePass’ downward spiral, CEO Mitch Lowe used questionable tactics to keep the company going, like blocking subscribers out of their accounts, according to multiple inside sources who Business Insider spoke to during a four-month investigation into the company’s practices published in August.

On July 4, MoviePass shut down, citing “technical problems.” Since then, the service has gradually come back online for some subscribers. In early August, a MoviePass spokesperson told Business Insider that MoviePass was available for 40% of subscribers.

SEE ALSO: A new survey finds Disney Plus has a huge advantage in signing up subscribers but shouldn’t be considered a Netflix killer

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Alexander Wang explains how to wear all black without looking boring



[ad_2]