MoviePass is back, with a higher price and new screening restrictions

MoviePass is still kicking, but it's not the "too good to be true" deal it once was. Maybe things were always going to turn out like this.

After a long Thursday-to-Monday weekend of service outages and customer outrage, MoviePass resurfaced on Tuesday morning with a new plan. Literally. The movie ticket subscription service is jacking up its monthly price and making some changes to the way it operates.

The biggest, most visible change is the cost of using the service. Sometime in the next 30 days, the $9.95 per month, one-screening-per-day plan will see its price increased to $14.95 per month.

It's not clear how this change will affect those with annual or three-month subscriptions, neither of which are offered any longer. Most likely, the pricing change will affect those users only after their current plan expires.

It's also not clear how the coming change will affect the lower-tier, three-movies-per-month for $7.95 subscription. The press release doesn't mention that one at all.

It's not just subscription pricing that's changing, however. MoviePass users are also going to be waiting longer to check out new releases moving forward.

We had heard on Monday that CEO Mitch Lowe informed employees at a company all-hands meeting that freshly released movies wouldn't be available through the service any longer, with The Meg and Christopher Robin (two very different summer blockbusters) cited as examples.

The press release is short on specifics here, but it sounds like this new version of MoviePass won't completely ditch new releases. Screenings will be "limited in their availability during [a movie's] first two weeks" in theaters, "unless made available on a promotional basis."

So it sounds like... first-come, first-served? Not clear. But subscribers should get used to the idea of waiting a couple of extra weeks to check out a new release if they want to catch it through their MoviePass plan.

Here's what the press release has to say on the matter:

In an effort to maintain the integrity of the MoviePass mission, to enhance discovery, and to drive attendance to smaller films and bolster the independent film community, MoviePass will begin to limit ticket availability to Blockbuster films. This change has already begun rolling out, with Mission Impossible 6 being the first film included in the measure. This is a strategic move by the company to both limit cash burn and stay loyal to its mission to empower the smaller artistic film communities. Major studios will continue to be able to partner with MoviePass to promote their first run films, seeding them with a valuable moviegoing audience.

In addition to those changes, the announcement also makes clear that steps are being taken to prevent people from abusing the service. What those steps are isn't specified, however.

And one more thing: Peak Pricing isn't going anywhere, it seems. The Uber-like "surge" surcharge is applied to certain screenings, though the particulars of how Peak screenings are determined is a mystery, and remains one of the biggest unanswered questions among subscribers.

It's important to note that the press release comes from MoviePass parent company Helios + Matheson Analytics. It's angled more toward investors and the Wall Street crowd than it is toward typical moviegoers.

MoviePass proper is likely to weigh in at some point soon with more of a consumer-facing announcement. For now, the service's website continues to reflect the old pricing structure. So certainly more to come on this. Stay tuned.