8 Things We Learned From MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe's Reddit AMA

To be frank, they're not.

Lowe skirted around questions about the subscription service's parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, taking a massive hit in stocks and effectively losing millions of dollars each month. However, in the Reddit AMA, he said that this is all part of the plan. "It takes a lot of investment and significant losses in order to build a multibillion dollar entertainment company," Lowe wrote. "Look at Spotify, Netflix and Amazon – there are many different companies that lost money for years and are only now turning a profit."

So how long will it be until MoviePass turns a profit? Five, 10 years? Sooner than that, Lowe promised.

In our case, we plan to break even on our subscription model by the end of the year. The reason we keep our price low is to attract the occasional moviegoer. There are more than 200 mil occasional moviegoers in the U.S., who only go to the movies 4-5 times a year without MoviePass and 9-10 times a year when they join MoviePass. If we get enough occasional moviegoers to offset the frequent moviegoer, everything will balance out.

But at the insanely low price of $9.99 a month, can MoviePass even hope to break even in six months? Lowe seems optimistic, even listing off plans to build a profit in the future, including "selling ads, engaging in brand partnerships and creating our own content."

Lowe isn't worried about AMC launching their own ticket subscription service, AMC Stubs A-List. "AMC's launch is a great validation of what we've been saying for years," Lowe said, "in order to compete with streaming services, consumers want a subscription model."

In summary: AMC is just jumping on the train that we started. Lowe's further statements on AMC continue to be ever-so-slightly shady (the feud continues!), stating, "Even though we're a little disappointed in AMC for not supporting the model earlier, we understand it was a business tactic and they're a competitor now." But he invited the competition, proclaiming, "it's competition that will just make us better."

However, Lowe seemed to jump to the defensive when another Reddit user asked what was keeping him/her from moving to AMC's subscription service:

Again, we're still a startup. AMC is an established presence in the industry, and it was much easier for them to launch a subscription plan. Ultimately, our mission is to provide our members with an amazing value that allows you to see movies not only at AMC, but also at Regal, Cinemark, and independent theatres across the country. We plan to continue providing a service that gives you the freedom to attend 4x as many theatres as AMC does.

You can soon bring a friend to a movie, but what about your family? Lowe promised that MoviePass is still working hard at introducing a family plan, which Helios and Matheson Analytics CEO Ted Farnsworth had mentioned earlier this month:

We're still a relatively small team and are working on a few other features first, but we really believe in the family plan and are excited to launch it in the future!

With other subscription services like Sinemia introducing their own family plans, it seems likely that MoviePass will want to jump on this as soon as possible.

MoviePass recently acquired the movie website MovieFone, announcing the purchase with sweeping claims that it would be their own Rotten Tomatoes. But Lowe expanded on that, explaining that their goal is to have "MoviePass to become the premier destination for leaning about movies, through both trailers and other types of content":

Regarding Moviefone, the website has not gone away and we are integrating this service by jointly developing content that will be seen on both the Moviefone and MoviePass sites. This is a work in progress as well. Finally, we plan to build out our 'night at the movies' next year. It's a busy time for MoviePass, but we're making progress towards these initiatives.