Warner Bros. is expanding its test of renting movies through download on Facebook. At the beginning of March, the studio began offering The Dark Knight for rental on the social network. Starting today at 10pm PT, Warner’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Inception, Life As We Know It and Yogi Bear also will be available.
To rent the films, fans go the movie’s Facebook page, press the Watch Now button and are charged Facebook credits for the rental. The movies stream from the Facebook page.
Warner’s expansion presumably means one of two things: Either the initial test of The Dark Knight proved popular and Warner wanted to get things rolling on a bigger scale, or The Dark Knight wasn’t streamed as much as the studio had expected and it’s trying out other movie genres.
Warner’s press release doesn’t say, but quoted in the release, Warner Bros. Digital Distribution president Thomas Gewecke said, “We’re pleased to expand our test with a variety of titles that will appeal to a broader audience.”
Is there a hint in that statement? We don’t know. But The Dark Knight is a comic book movie, Harry Potter fantasy, Inception science-fiction, Life As We Know It romantic comedy and Yogi Bear family comedy. A broader audience indeed. All these movies are already on DVD and Blu-ray.
We’ll be interested to see if streaming movies on Facebook takes off. We’re guessing it won’t until the movie can be shown on TV sets. But tell us what you think…
Leave a Reply