Facebook To Begin Offering Movie Rentals

Facebook will begin rolling out movie rentals, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Warner Bros. will begin by offering The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's Batman hit on the social networking site, through its official Facebook page.

The cost of a rental would be 30 Facebook credits, or $3. Users would then have 48 hours from purchase time to watch the movie. Facebook would continue to functional normally during that time.

"Facebook has become a daily destination for hundreds of millions of people," said Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, told THR. "Making our films available through Facebook is a natural extension of our digital distribution efforts. It gives consumers a simple, convenient way to access and enjoy our films through the world's largest social network."

This first movie will serve as a test, but additional purchases will be available over the next few months for rental, and purchase.

All Things Digital points out that the move puts Facebook in competition with a host of companies: "Every digital heavyweight is making a play for your living room. Apple, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, everyone," Peter Kafka writes.

Comments

[Danek Greori]

08:49 PM on 03/09/2011

This may not be the final straw, but it is just a reminder of a concern that we should all have: FaceBook's centrality to an increasing number of American's lives. FaceBook has already made it clear through their policies, legal actions, lack of action, and notices that they don't care much about the individual right to privacy, and that they are more than willing to aide any government authority by handing over not just your data, but all date they have retained about you (including things that you thought had long been deleted). The government already has programs and initiatives that monitor what books people check out from the public library system; and with the direction FaceBook's going it won't be long before they become some sort of auxiliary arm of the government.

So, no thanks, FaceBook. The last thing you need is more information about me; that includes what movies I watch, want to watch, and delivery methods that will undoubtedly contain some kind of invasive DRM.

[MiaisAwesome]

04:42 PM on 03/09/2011

Well this won't work. I can just go to my local Walgreens or CVS and rent a movie for 1.00 + 5 cents tax from Redbox or stream as many movies as I like for 8 dollars a month from Netflix!

When films are so easily obtainable from torrent sites for free, charging 3 bucks for a rental is hardly going to prove profitable for Facebook taking in account their yearly earnings are already up for question. They need to do something better or Zuckerberg will have to go back to wearing his gap hoody and flip flops.

[drosa1991]

02:50 PM on 03/09/2011

FaceBook is now streaming movies http://bit.ly/gVn5T5

[bhiggi01]

10:38 AM on 03/09/2011

Facebook is not an company I see around 10 years from now people will eventally get tired of using the website.

[single malt]

10:54 PM on 03/08/2011

Didn't TC basically call this story hocus pocus.. meaning not true. http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/08/holy-misleading-conclusions-batman-the-facebook-netflix-killer-that-wasnt/ BTW doesn't the huffpuff boss lady basically run TC now?

[Nick Pirce]

07:19 PM on 03/08/2011

Facebook is new blockbuster

[wilray]

02:30 PM on 03/09/2011

... and seeing that Blockbuster is bankrupt, I'll stick with Netflix.

[Knowledgeseeker]

06:38 PM on 03/08/2011

$ 3 dollars is too expensive... for now I will stick to Netflix or red box

[Knowledgeseeker]

06:36 PM on 03/08/2011

more choices so I can go ahead and cancel my expensive cable service...

[French Toast]

06:24 PM on 03/08/2011

Or I can pay $8 for Netflix. Yeah i think I'll pay for Netflix.

[josh h]

06:21 PM on 03/08/2011

Hmm, $1.50 bluray from redbox on my 46" lcd and surround sound or $3 download on my 19"computer screen and crappy speakers.

[macracan]

05:33 PM on 03/08/2011

$3 for 48hrs? I got stuff from Amazon for $2 for a month long rental.

[Max Shaw]

04:09 PM on 03/08/2011

"Users would then have 48 hours from purchase time to watch the movie. Facebook would continue to functional normally during that time..."

I love when things functional normally...

[theuniversalcollective]

05:04 PM on 03/08/2011

lol. I love it when a plan comes together

[Eyeful]

03:32 PM on 03/08/2011

Charge $3 for a time-stamp online movie rental of a film that is 3 years old. Only a Zucker would fall for this.

[cmalloy]

06:22 PM on 03/08/2011

There's a zucker born every minute.

[jcarterla]

02:02 PM on 03/08/2011

When will they be implanting facebook in our heads? I haven't submitted to this proto-matrix.

[wilray]

02:54 PM on 03/09/2011

Head implants are a trick to hijack your brain. I know because I saw it on Doctor Who "The Long Game." The Jagrafess was pulling the strings, and the Daleks were pulling the Jagrafess's string.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EGbcSOdliA