I took a break from the near-daily problems plaguing MoviePass, thinking the next post would about its inevitable demise. Well, that hasn’t happened quite yet but it’s clear parent company Helios and Matheson are reading the tea leaves and are taking steps to make sure the subscription service doesn’t destroy everything.
MoviePass assets are being spun off into its own publicly traded company that will only be a subsidiary to the parent. This includes MoviePass Films, MoviePass Ventures, and MovieFone which are all sinking like a stone.
So what’s the benefit of doing this? Well, here’s how CEO Ted Farnsworth tries to spin it…
“Since we acquired control of MoviePass in December 2017, [Helios and Matheson] largely has become synonymous with MoviePass in the public’s eye, leading us to believe that our shareholders and the market perception of [Helios and Matheson] might benefit from separating our movie-related assets from the rest of our company.”
Oh, sure. This is just about separating the movie stuff into its own little thing. While part of that might be true, a broader view of things shows that Helios and Matheson’s stock has plummeted due to MoviePass’ consistent failures, from a high of around $30 down to $0.01. so low its in danger of being booted from NASDAQ.
So when/if (let’s be honest, its “when”) MoviePass finally implodes Helios and Matheson have a chance to survive as it will be off doing its own thing.
I don’t know what this will mean for those of you who are still MoviePass subscribers, assuming you still exist, but the optics on this couldn’t be worse. MoviePass couldn’t even hold on to its parent company, so why should moviegoers stick around? [Deadline]
