Santa was good to MoviePass this holiday season.

Less than a month after the startup announced it had surpassed the 1 million-subscriber milestone, the company said it added another 500,000 new subscribers.

“Based on the dramatic increase in the number of MoviePass subscribers over such a short period of time, we believe MoviePass will continue to grow its subscriber base significantly,” said CEO Mitch Lowe. “We’re giving people a reason to go back to the movie theaters and they’re going in droves.”

MoviePass is a subscription service that allows its users to see one movie every day for $9.95 per month. With the average month having 30 days, a power user of the service pays about $0.33 per movie they see at one of the participating theaters.

The explosive growth can be attributed to a price drop in August 2017, as well as positive press around the holiday season and a partnership with Costco that offers an annual subscription for $89.99 – or about $7.50 per month.

The service lowered its monthly cost from $45 for a premium subscription and $35 for a standard subscription following its acquisition by Helios and Matheson Analytics, a data firm with a business intelligence clientele.

Since the acquisition, MoviePass has touted data as the true value of its service rather than revenue generated by subscriptions. The company has a record of every movie its subscribers attend. It knows when its subscribers like to go to movies, and it knows where they like to see them.

MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and HMNY CEO Ted Farnsworth.

“MoviePass is attracting people back to the movie theaters by lowering their cost, which we believe is transformational for the industry,” said GMNY CEO Ted Farnsworth. “We believe the data MoviePass collects from these million and a half movie-goers will become an important asset to our partners and the future of the movie industry.”

Theaters chains are beginning to take notice of MoviePass’s growing popularity.

In December, Cinemark, which owns around 250 theaters in the United States, announced Movie Club, an $8.99 monthly plan that offers its subscribers one 2D movie ticket per month. The service also allows subscribers to purchase additional tickets for a discounted price of $8.99.

Locally, Marbles IMAX in downtown Raleigh has long offered a membership program that discounts Hollywood features and documentaries by 50 percent off the ticket price. It should be noted that MoviePass cannot be used to see IMAX features, nor can it be used for any film at Marbles.

The service is not without its skeptics, however. AMC has been vocal about its displeasure saying that MoviePass will set consumers up for “disappointment down the road if or when the product can no longer be fulfilled.”