Costco teams up with MoviePass, Fandor
MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe on Netflix, selling user data and the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal.
Costco (NASDAQ:COST) is getting into the movie business in an attempt to broaden its offerings to its members as retail competition continues to heat up, with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) leading the charge.
The wholesaler announced Tuesday that it has partnered with movie-theater subscription service MoviePass and streaming service Fandor to offer a one-year subscription plan for both services for a flat fee.
The package deal, however, is exclusive to Costco members, for one week only, starting Tuesday. The offer will give users instant access to over 5,000 films through Fandor’s library as well as in-theaters passes to see new releases through MoviePass’s program.
In recent months, MoviePass has been playing around with its price point. In August, the New York-based startup slashed its $50-a-month rate to $9.99, which inundated the company with over 400,000 new subscribers, causing them to struggle to keep up with demand. Then just last month, MoviePass announced it was slashing its price yet again to a new low of $6.95, but this time, the company is ready for a surge in demand, by almost tripling the size of its staff.
Shares of Helios and Matheson Analytics (Nasdaq:HMNY), who owns a majority stake in MoviePass, are up 17% on the news. Additionally, the company projects that MoviePass will acquire at least 2.5 million additional paying subscribers over the next 12 months and retain at least 2.1 million of those at the end of that period.