MoviePass owner says it's figured out how to cut its losses by more than 35%

Business Insider

MoviePass.

• On Tuesday, MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics filed an 8-K to the SEC stating it had approximately $43.4 million in the bank.
• It also reported that after a few tweaks to MoviePass, it reduced its cash deficit during the first week of May by more than 35%.

You might not like that MoviePass will no longer let you use its service to watch the same movie multiple times, but the measure might help the company stay in business.

On Tuesday, MoviePass' parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), filed a 8-K to the SEC about its current financial situation.

The company said that, as of April 30, it had approximately $43.4 million in the bank and that its average cash deficit (the amount of money it had been losing) was approximately $21.7 million per month since September 2017.

However, the company also noted that a few changes to MoviePass' tech and terms of service could help reduce its "monthly cash deficit significantly."

Helios and Matheson wrote that, in late April, MoviePass enhanced its technology to prevent subscribers from sharing accounts with non-subscribers, and stopped allowing subscribers to see a movie title more than once while using the service. The company said it believed these actions led to a reduction in its cash deficit during the first week of May by "more than 35%."

This is good news for investors, many of whom had been wary of the company after, in April, its independent auditor raised "substantial doubt" about its ability to stay in business, and the company sold more shares to help offset its losses.

"MoviePass currently spends more to retain a subscriber than the revenue derived from that subscriber," Helios and Matheson wrote in its annual report in April. Investors, no doubt, hope controlling costs can turn that around.