There can only be one.
Streaming your favorite movies just became a lot easier (finally). Movies Anywhere — a free app formally known as Disney Movies Anywhere — is providing streaming content that’s backed by five out of the six major content creators: Walt Disney, (which includes Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar), Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers.
Movies released by any of these studios can be redeemed and all watched on the same platform as long as the films were originally purchased from Amazon Video, Google Play, iTunes, Vudo or in a physical copy. All users need to do is link these accounts through Movies Anywhere and their good to go.
“It’s simplicity,” said Movies Anywhere manager Karin Gilford during a presentation, via Variety. “It’s ease of use. It’s bringing it together all in one place. It’s going to be amazing. This is going to enable movie fans to sync their movie collection from the five studios across retailers, devices, platforms.”
Total, users have up to 7,300 movies to chose from and stream. The only major company who has not jumped on board is Paramount — the studio responsible for the Transformers and Star Trek films.
Users are also able to purchase films directly from Movies Anywhere. Starting next year the company hopes to start creating and shipping their own physical discs as well, which will contain exclusive Movies Anywhere branding.
“The magic really happens when you link to retailer accounts because you get to see that whole collection come through,” said Gilford via Variety. “There’s that sort of aha moment that happens when all of the titles that you bought from one of our five studios on any of our four digital retailers all come together.”
Disney is the one responsible for kicking off this entire project. They never licensed their films to Ultraviolet — something fans originally criticized them for — because they had this project lurking in the shadows. Now, it appears, that may have been the right choice.
Mashable is also reporting that new sign-ups have the opportunity for free copies of movies that include Ghostbusters, Ice Age, Big Hero 6, Jason Bourne and The Lego Movie, depending on which services are linked.
Movies Anywhere allows customers up to five sub-accounts, similar to the way Netflix runs their service. Each sub-account has their own recommendations and preferences. It also works across multiple devices — viewers can start watching something on their iPad and finish it on their TV.
“We are going to continue to evolve,” said Gilford via Variety. “We would like to add more retailers, launch on more platforms. We’re talking to all the other studios. We know that consumers would like to have their content also in Movies anywhere, and we really hope to bring them onboard so those talks will continue.”
Movies Anywhere is now available for download wherever you download your apps from these days.
What do you think of this news? Are you going to start your movie collection all over again in the Movies Anywhere app? Or does all the studios working together like this sound too good to be true? Let us know in the comments below.