MoviePass had a year of meteoric subscriber growth and that’s a problem

MoviePass’ subscriber count hit a whopping 3 million in June, a staggering rise from its initial tally of 20,000 last August.

As this chart from Statista shows, the subscriber base has grown exponentially in the past year, creating higher costs for the company as it continues to grapple with an unsustainable business model. The user count is perhaps also partly to blame for the service’s temporary shutdown just last week when its parent company ran out of money.

But the difficulty didn’t start there. Earlier this month, the company revealed a new peak pricing surcharge that will charge app users extra for movies tickets that are in high demand. And most recently MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe announced in an open letter that the company will altogether stop providing subscribers with tickets to big upcoming movies, like “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” and “The Meg,” and will raise its monthly fees to $14.95.