UPDATE! Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Negotiations to be Streamed on Netflix.
The latest Star Wars movie isn’t even out yet, and who gets the streaming rights to the film is already a hot debate amongst people inside Disney. While The Force Awakens should theoretically go to Netflix, Disney has to resolve a small rights dispute with Starz first.
From ScreenCrush:
Back in 2012, Disney and Netflix struck a deal that would allow all of Disney’s films — including Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars properties — to stream exclusively on Netflix Instant, starting on January 1, 2016. As that date approaches, many have speculated openly about the Star Wars films finally coming to Netflix. There were even rumors recently that Netflix was prepping their database for the Star Wars movies, though Netflix denied those reports. While they have yet to comment specifically on the existing six films in the Star Wars library, Netflix did confirm that, as of now, they do not have the rights to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but are currently in negotiations to bring that title to their streaming library.
Because it opens in theaters in 2015, The Force Awakens is the last title included as part of Disney’s previous home entertainment deal with cable channel Starz. That deal expires at the end of the year, but as of now, Starz still holds the exclusive rights to that film. On getting the rights to The Force Awakens for Netflix Instant, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said, “It’s up to Disney […] It’s an ongoing discussion.”
Something worth noting is that all of the Star Wars films that Disney has the rights to – with the exception of A New Hope, which is still owned by Twentieth Century Fox – will go up on the streaming service in Latin American nations sometime soon. A New Hope‘s addition to the service is dependent on whether or not Disney can make a deal with Fox, but given that the movie was distributed digitally earlier this year alongside the other films, it’s likely that something will be worked out before the new movie comes out.
UPDATE!
Good news and bad news on this subject, coming from Variety. The good news is that they worked out a deal for Netflix to stream the movie in 2016. The bad news is it only applies to Canadian viewers for now. Due to the way the contracts are written, The Force Awakens will be the last movie available for Starz to broadcast in regions outside of Canada, which they’ll take advantage of for as long as they can. That being said, all other Star Wars movies released past that point are free to go up on Netflix in the months afterward. Presuming, for instance, that Episode VIII hits the library in late 2018, The Force Awakens will probably be a part of the streaming platform’s library at that point. It’s just a matter of waiting, it seems.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
This could be…interesting.
Sorry, seeing your avatar I just couldn’t help myself – Darth Platypus (of the duck-billed Order)…
Da Real Supreme Commander Snoke
Ok, I am gonna be THAT guy making THIS comment… but you know this is hilarious reading about the end distribution already, and we haven’t even seen a full trailer yet!
yeah but netflix exists only in us so this doesnt affect me in europe. blu rays win
Well I have netflix and I live in Switzerland 😡
Netflix is available in most european countries..
Been rocking Netflix in England for ages.
Dude, Netflix is in a ton of countries. Whoever told you it was only in the US is seriously ill-informed.
Don’t be mean, he’s just a clone 😉
Eh? Netflix exists in the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Most of South America, Japan, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland etc.
Sooooo…..dunno where you’re getting “only in the US” from.
With a simple VPN or as I do, use Unblock-us for a small fee, you can access any specific region’s Netflix that you want. Very handy, been catching up on clone Wars with it.
What a short-sighted fustercluck ….
Stupid, greedy cunts..
Fox does not own ‘A New Hope.’ Lucasfilm has owned it since 1998, having secured ownership during the deal that granted Fox distribution rights for the prequels. Fox holds in-perpetuity distribution rights (as well as having distribution rights for the other five until May of 2020), but they do not own the film itself. Given just how widely and often the facts have been reported, it’s amazing how many Star Wars-centric sites still can’t get it right.
You must be fun at parties.
I avoid parties where the ownership of ‘Star Wars’ is a topic of conversation.
Well maybe some of those party goers would actually enjoy conversing about the topic of ‘Star Wars’ ownership, but they don’t get the chance to because you shut them down so quick.
They’re free to discuss other topics. Like whether or not thunder is the sound of clouds bumping into one another, or if mixing Coca-Cola and Pop Rocks will cause one’s stomach to explode. Facts be damned.
Proven and known facts aren’t fun to debate by the general populace. Only the small group of select individuals, aka. pedantics, who like to sound smart to others will try to correct fan sites of a niche such as Star Wars episode 7 news.
Not a fan of fact-checking?
Oh I’m a fan of fact checking, just not a fan of pedantic fact checking that serves no purpose besides making yourself seem like a complete asshat to everyone else for no other reason than to make yourself seem more intelligent than you actually are.
He didn’t seem like an asshat to me. The people who seem like asshats to me are the ones who are so insecure that they’re nasty to people who know something they don’t.
Yeah those people are also asshats. But that knowledge which he stated was already known knowledge on my end so therefore I can’t be an asshat by that logic. 🙂
You have no possible way of checking that I already knew that knowledge already so you’re going to have to trust me that I knew that Lucasfilm owns Star Wars, and Fox only has distribution rights for A New Hope already.
Also, it’s not a problem of insecurity it’s more a problem of being too secure and disliking when others challenge that security.
I have no idea why people are giving you a hard time for explaining the actual facts. I swear, I log onto the ‘net anymore and it’s like people are knee-jerk hostile to anyone who knows something they don’t or tries to tell them something they don’t already believe.
I’m only giving him crap because he is saying he wants all fan sites to correct this “Given just how widely and often the facts have been reported, it’s amazing how many Star Wars-centric sites still can’t get it right.”
When in actuality…. does it really matter?
Apparently it does, and apparently I care about it too hahaa otherwise I would have ignored the comment.
They need to bring Clone Wars to the UK Netflix
You guys don’t have it? That’s a serious crime. I binged watched the crap out of the Clone Wars on the US Netflix.
Yeah, we have to use a VPN or proxy service like Hola or Zenmate to watch it on the US version.
That’s unfortunate. I hope they bring it to UK Netflix soon.
I’d love to see Star Wars on Netflix, the clone wars is already on the US Netflix so it kind of makes sense.
I hope rebels follows suit
Showbox FTW
Netflix paid Disney a ton of money for the rights to the first 6 movies already
Can you cite a source on that?
Hype redux
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/slaves-to-the-empire-the-star-wars-kids-talk-back-19800724
irreverent…. i’m buying the bluray lol. hopefull it will have a 4K UHD bluray. Samsung has a player coming out early next year, and fox already announced 4 HDR 4K remasterings for UHD. (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Life of Pi, Exodus: Gods and Kings and The Maze Runner)
rich boy…
more like ‘Poor Boy’ lol. I don’t have a 4K tv, but if it comes out on UHD, it will come with a normal bluray, and i would rather buy it once, and not have to re-buy it when i get a 4K in the future.
I made a vow not to re-buy any movies i already own on bluray, on 4K.
…EXCEPT Star Wars and the LotR/Hobbit movies.
I have a licence to sell this box and it streams everything! Inbox me for more details please! This is An Amazing Product!
What’s up with the new layout? The ads at the top are really annoying
It’s not intentional. We’re fixing this. It only appears on mobile devices. BTW next week, we will have new mobile version.
Thanks for that. Great to hear!
How is it bad news that its just for Canadians? Someone will save it and post it for the rest of us
That’s a shame. It would have been really nice for casual fans to catch up on Star Wars before the force awakens, and even though I have all the bully-rays I’d still watch on Netflix. Still it’s exciting that future episodes will also be available to us.
that won’t affect me and my blu-ray collection right?
exactly lol. i think it is great….. but i mean, who WON’T buy this flick on bluray? lol
We’ll probably see each other in line for our blurays but I would still like to stream this at work or on the go.
There’s always redbox.
Not really on topic but I just found this sabre duel video from the Fencing World Champs’ Moscow. https://youtu.be/T4is7h_cgzI
Impressive. Most impressive.
There are ways to get Netflix to think you live in Canada when you don’t…
They should stream porn while they’re at it. You’d think if they could get the rights to show Star Wars, they could get some porn movies too!
What does it matter? We’re all just going to go buy it on blu ray the day it is released anyways, lol.
I don’t understand Netflix. How can these movie companies make money when Netflix is so cheap?