MoviePass wants to prop up its stock price again

Executives at Helios and Matheson, the parent company of the movie subscription service, are asking shareholders to vote on a plan that could increase the stock by as much as 500-fold.

That plan was outlined in a new document filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The vote will take place at a shareholder meeting October 18.

If the plan is approved, stockholders would trade in as many as 500 shares for a single share worth about 500 times as much. The final ratio has yet to be determined, and will be laid out in a future announcement.

The change would be largely cosmetic for shareholders, since their stakes would be valued the same as before the split.

But the plan could boost the stock price from about 2 cents to as much as $10 — enough to possibly keep the stock trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Nasdaq has warned Helios and Matheson that its stock could be delisted because of its low price.

Whether the price would remain high after the reverse stock split is far from certain.

MoviePass tried to boost its stock from 8 cents to $21 with a similar move in July. But the new price plunged back below $1 within days.

The movie subscription service burst onto the scene last year when it began offering customers the ability to watch as many movies in theaters as they wanted for $10 per month. But that business model proved unsustainable, and the company has since changed its subscription plans, pricing and movie availability.