【Girls in the Night Traffic】

It seems like the beginning of the end for MoviePass,Girls in the Night Traffic the company whose groundbreaking attempt to singlehandedly reinvogorate the movie exhibition business has all but gone down in flames.

On Tuesday, MoviePass announced it would be increasing its monthly unlimited price to $14.95/month and also limiting access to many popular movies for their first two weeks in theaters. This move might save the company, but it's shortsighted. Independent film stands to gain a lot from MoviePass subscribers, but without major first-run blockbusters to bring them in, subscribers might drop the plan all together – and miss out on some truly amazing films.

SEE ALSO: MoviePass is dying and the memes are brutal

First, a quick recap of MoviePass's recent troubles: In the past week, the company has suffered from a service outage, a plummeting share price, and glitchy service. After a year of trying to outrun the clock on financial difficulty, the company's time finally seemed to be up.

Increasing prices is the right move for MoviePass to stay afloat. Losing out on blockbuster movie audiences isn't.

But MoviePass isn't new to the game. The company was around for years before spiking in popularity last year due to a dramatic price cut. Before dropping to $9.95/month, the cost of a monthly unlimited subscription was a whopping $50. That seems like a lot – and for many, it is – but it was still a steal for huge movie buffs or users in pricey cities where movie tickets average around $15 for an adult.

In that sense, MoviePass served a core target audience of movie fans. Those who truly wanted or needed it were willing to pay the premium price, and still might if it's cheaper than their cumulative monthly ticket bill.

The MoviePass statement on these new changes says the company wants “to enhance discovery, and to drive attendance to smaller films and bolster the independent film community.” That's a fine goal, but it's meaningless unless MoviePass somehow brings in those blockuster fans who weren't already supporting independent cinema.

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Truthfully, if you cared about going to a Marvel movie on opening night (or The Megor Christopher Robin, which is what MoviePass C.E.O. Mitch Lowe considers quintessential summer viewing, apparently), there's a good chance you weren't using MoviePass to do it anyway. I personally paid for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Black Panther, and Avengers: Infinity Waron top of my MoviePass subscription, because I was still getting my money's worth from all the other films I was watching.

But the whole point of the price drop in 2017 was to appeal to a wider customer demographic, and that's exactly the people using their MoviePass cards to see Skyscraperthe weekend Eighth Gradecame out. The same people might check out Eighth Gradein the coming weeks, having drank their fill of blockbusters for the time being.

As with Hollywood at large, commercial films keep indies afloat for MoviePass. The idea with this two-week rule is that a user will bide their time waiting for The Megto hit the app and instead go see a Blindspottingor a Sorry to Bother You(related: Please see these movies) – but the sizable risk here is that people cancel their MoviePass altogether (and given the recently abysmal service, that's likely).

The two-week policy creates a divide among current MoviePass subscribers, and it is decidedly split between indie moviegoers and blockbuster fans. MoviePass could become a hot ticket for those who love indie or arthouse cinema, while those who prefer blockbusters may be better off canceling their subscriptions (and maybe signing up for AMC A-List).

It's an interesting turning point in an eventful year for MoviePass. The rock-bottom pricing was intended to drive up membership and bring in a broader audience. That worked, but in the fallout of the financial difficulties that decision created, MoviePass may have lost what it once had: A loyal user base of dedicated movie fans.

In the process of enticing casual moviegoers and converting them into cinephiles, the company may have alienated both types of movie fan and yanked the independent film industry around in the meantime.

Now, the subscription service might be a haven for indie buffs, a sinking ship for longtime users in denial (no one in particular, ahem), or even a relic if things don't go as planned moving forward.

With the saga still unfolding, we're on board for the ride. Pass the popcorn.

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