Warner Bros. will distribute more than 600 films from Paramount's library after striking a three-year deal with the studio's distribution arm, Warner Bros. announced Thursday.
The deal grants Warner Bros. exclusive rights to Blu-ray and DVD distribution of those movies in the United States and Canada and allows the studio to offer on its streaming service Flixster all of Paramount's titles already available on UltraViolet, a cloud-based movie storage locker.
Paramount will receive licensing fees from Warner Bros., but specific financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2013, excludes about 100 prominent Paramount franchises including "Transformers," "Star Trek" and "Indiana Jones." However, titles like "Terms of Endearment," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "Airplane!" are part of the agreement.
Warner Bros. will have access to a select number of new titles after the 26-day release period.
"Flixster provides access to the leading movie discovery application that will promote digital content ownership and aid in expanding our digital business," Dennis Maguire, president of Paramount Home Media Distribution, said in a statement. "At the same time, on the physical side, this agreement enables us to manage our profitability in a time of change in the marketplace and to focus more resources on new releases."
The agreement also allows Warner Bros. to bundle digital copies of the films with the physical sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs.
However, Paramount still owns the rights to the movies' video-on-demand, subscription video-on-demand and electronic sell-through.
