18% of MoviePass subscribers say they plan to cancel, but many loyalists are still happy despite unpopular new features (HMNY)

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18% of current MoviePass subscribers say they plan to cancel the service.
But the majority of customers are still happy with MoviePass despite new restrictions.
The most common reason cited for previous cancellation of the movie-ticketing subscription service was the restrictions on movies and showtimes.

MoviePass, the movie-ticket subscription service, raised howls of anger from customers after it capped the number of movies they can see every month and introduced other restrictions.

But while 18% of MoviePass current subscribers are planning to cancel, a large percentage are still happy with the service despite the new limits on movies and showtimes.

According to a new survey conducted by on-demand insights platform AlphaHQ for Business Insider, MoviePass has a surprisingly large group of loyalists who have not been turned off by the new restrictions. Out of 165 people surveyed who had subscribed to MoviePass in the last six months, 56% said they were either extremely or moderately satisfied with the service, while 18% had a neutral reaction.

As MoviePass has struggled to gain financial footing in recent months, it has rolled out new features designed to control its cash burn. The main ones still in a effect are a cap at three movies per month, and limitations on which movies (and showtimes) subscribers can go to.

“There are always movies that I want to see,” one respondent said. “I feel it is a great value for the amount paid. Other friends have purchased based on my great experience.”

Another, however, said they had become disenchanted with MoviePass: “It was amazing at first but became too restrictive at the end.”

Despite laments about the product going downhill, these survey results are a far cry from the doomsday scenario social media would suggest was happening to MoviePass.

That said, 18% of 119 current MoviePass subscribers surveyed said they had plans to cancel, with 6% saying they already tried but were not allowed to (a common complaint Business Insider has heard).

Of 46 previous MoviePass subscribers who had already canceled, 54% cited the limitations on which movies they could go to as a reason.

“They changed it too much and you basically couldn't see movies when you wanted to which is why I stopped subscribing,” one respondent said.

MoviePass announced in June that it had passed three million subscribers, so even with a double-digit drop the company would still have a sizeable user base.

But the more proximate worry for MoviePass and its parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, is angry shareholders, some of whom have seen the value of their stakes drop over 99% in recent months.

Helios has twice delayed a crucial shareholders meeting where it will ask for authorization to perform a 1-for-500 reverse stock split to avoid getting delisted from the Nasdaq exchange. The meeting is now scheduled to take place on November 14.

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