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Report: Cable Network Bags Rights to ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ at a Bargain Price

Jan 5, 2016  •  Post A Comment

A cable network will have TV rights to the box-office juggernaut “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” for the bargain price of $17.5 million, according to a report in the New York Post. The network is Starz.

“The premium channel, run by Chief Executive Chris Albrecht, has dibs on ‘The Force Awakens,’ the first installment in the rebooted franchise, under an exclusive pay-TV distribution deal with Disney that grants the rights to movies that appeared in theaters through the end of 2015,” the story reports.

The movie is expected to easily pass “Avatar” to become the highest-grossing theatrical release of all time. It has taken in more than $740 million in North America since it was released Dec. 18.

star wars the force awakens

3 Comments

  1. Sounds like someone doesn’t want to share any of the back-end profits. Can’t wait to see Disney’s accountants tell profit participants that Force Awakens didn’t make any money.

  2. We haven’t seen the bidding between Amazon and Netflix yet. The limited growth of cable may make this movie not as valuable in a U.S. cable situation as we may think. However, an exclusive Global streaming deal for Netflix or Amazon (especially assuming these rights would be long before releasing for cable) would bring in a lot of new subscribers. It could be especially valuable to Netflix as it tries to lock up the Chinese and other Asian markets.

  3. Disney signed a deal in Dec. 2012 granting its first Pay TV window to Netflix in the U.S. beginning in 2016 with films released prior to that exclusivity falling under their Starz agreement – which includes “The Force Awakens.”

    http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/04/technology/netflix-disney/

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