Canadians who are subscribed to Netflix will have the convenience of watching "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," which is set to be released on Dec. 18, 2015, from the comforts of their couches in 2016. So how what about the US?
After tickets for the highly anticipated" "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" began breaking ticket sales records. The figures folded that of "The Hunger Games'" eight times over. Moreover, less than a day after the tickets for the latest "Star Wars" movie went on sale, online ticketing websites have charted seven times their peaks traffic numbers. Some venues have already sold all of their tickets, which prompted movie theaters to book the motion picture for more show time.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the top-selling film on [MovieTickets.com]," Variety reported. "It represents 95 percent of sales over the past 24 hours."
Luckily, those in Canada don't have to rush to the theaters and battle the crowd of Star Wars fanatics. Canadians can enjoy the movie right in their homes because Netflix secured the rights to have the movie streamed from its platform within the Great White North.
There are, however, a couple of things that you may want to know about. Disney, which owns the rights to the movie after it purchased Lucasfilm in October 2012, still has a running pay-TV contract with Corus Entertainment and Bell Canada. Moreover, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" will not be available in any legal online streaming outlets until after eight months of it leaving the theaters.
Unfortunately for the U.S. and other parts of the world, Netflix was only able to secure it for Canada. Disney still has an active agreement with Starz, a premium cable channel for the U.S., which also concludes when 2015 ends. Hence, during the movie's theatrical debut, Starz will stand as the designated pay-TV outlet for Disney's contents.
Meanwhile, while the motion picture is yet to be upon us, Netflix was reported to be working on an agreement with Disney to have previous "Star Wars" movies streamed through its online service.
Below is the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" trailer, which currently has over 40 million views since it was released on Oct. 19, 2015.
