Warner Bros. has brought its Netflix-style streaming movie app to the iPad, giving users access to its 80-year archive of classic movies.
Lovers of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall can now stream the Warner Archive Instant collection of more than 500 movies and television programming on iPads running iOS 6 and 7 as well as Roku. The service, which costs $9.99 per month and provides a free two-week trial, also includes closed captioning, a feature the company says was highly requested.
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The movies in the collection tend to be esoteric — titles including Harper starring Paul Newman and The Long, Long Trailer featuring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame — a niche that Warner Brothers says appeals to a dedicated audience that seek out this type of content.
"Warner Archive Instant appeals to a whole new group of fans who are united by their passion for rare and hard-to-find movies and TV shows. It’s a category of consumers that transcends traditional demographic segmentation, crossing age, gender and more," says George Feltenstein, senior vice president of theatrical catalog marketing at Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.
Netflix previously held the rights to stream these movies, but it lost the films when the previous agreement was not renewed.
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Image: Getty/Victor Drees