MoviePass said on Wednesday that executive vice president Khalid Itum has resigned from the movie-going subscription service just three months after the company announced he had taken over the role.
The company said on Wednesday that in addition to Itum, several other individuals would be leaving and, or transitioning as the company tries to transform its business and change its fortunes. There was no pressure for Itum to leave the company, an individual close to MoviePass said.
“As previously stated, MoviePass has moved in a new strategic direction, and will be refocusing our business model to create a more closely connected relationship between our subscription service and original content production unit, MoviePass Films,” the company said in a statement. “This strategic shift has been accompanied by changes within the company. Khalid Itum will be leaving MoviePass to pursue his entrepreneurial and travel pursuits. Mitch Lowe will assume all of Itum’s roles and responsibilities, effective March 15. Several roles and individuals within MoviePass, including Joey Adarkway and Jake Peterson, are transitioning from full time employees to contracted consulting roles based on this directional shift.”
MoviePass announced Itum had been appointed as executive vice president on Dec. 3, though he served in the role for roughly three months leading up to that. Itum was tasked with managing day-to-day operations at MoviePass. He was meant to work closely with MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth, CEO of MoviePass’s parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc, to spearhead company development and drive its exhibition and distribution strategies forward.
His appointment was initially meant for Lowe to be able to step back from the day-to-day and take a more overall, strategic approach. Before taking over as executive vice president, Itum had served as vice president of business development.
Itum’s departure comes as MoviePass attempts to retool its business and regain its footing following a tumultuous year in which the company burned hundreds of millions of dollars, frustrated members with continuous changes to subscriptions and watched its stock fall and stay below $1.
Last week, MoviePass announced that in an effort to shore up finances it would shift to a new business model it says will prioritize self-generated revenue instead of reliance on earnings from exhibitors and studios.
The plan, MoviePass said, would be to forge “a much more interconnected” relationship between the company’s monthly movie theater subscription service and the film production business it launched last year, MoviePass Films. The company will make the films it produces available to MoviePass subscribers, which it hopes will both increase the film’s box office potential, and lead to an expansion of the subscription service itself.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Helios and Matheson said it had over-reported revenue from subscribers in its third-quarter earnings report. The company said it had fewer subscribers than it initially thought.
Business Insider first reported the news.