Netflix has aquired the rights to stream the Hunger Games movie 90 days after EPIX according to Home Media Magazine.
Netflix gets streaming access to the year’s biggest box office hits, The Hunger Games and The Avengers, beginning in early 2013 — but only 90 days after their releases on disc and Epix, reps for Netflix and the multiplatform pay-channel confirmed.
The Hunger Games is distributed domestically by Lionsgate and The Avengers by Paramount Pictures, with Paramount securing the rights to Avengers from Marvel Comics before The Walt Disney Co. acquired the superhero company. Lionsgate and Paramount parent Viacom are co-owners (along with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) of Epix.
No home entertainment release dates for the titles have been announced.
Online scuttlebutt had suggested that since Netflix and Epix signed an exclusive streaming deal in 2010 — an agreement that doesn’t expire until September — Netflix could have SVOD access to The Hunger Games as early as this fall and The Avengers in early 2013.
The movies' impressive theatrical runs portend successful retail releases both physically and digitally. That prospect puts lower margin SVOD on the low end of the distibution foodchain.
Indeed, through May 15 The Hunger Games has generated more than $387 million and The Avengers more than $380 million at the domestic box office. Avengers has generated $1 billion in global ticket sales in just 19 days of release, while Hunger Games has generated more than $624 million globally.
Netflix has aggressively sought new release movies since a license agreement with Starz Entertainment for Disney and Sony Pictures content ended in February. Netflix did score a coup in February when it secured premium cable channel rights to Oscar winner The Artist and other titles from The Weinstein Co. ahead of HBO and Showtime.
Epix May 7 said it would be the first to bring Hunger Games and Avengers to television, online at EpixHD.com, and through its apps sometime next year.
Source: Home Media Magazine  via. HungerGamesDWTC