Netflix acquires the pay-TV rights to Sony Pictures Animation's movies under a new multiyear agreement, beginning with ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2’ and ‘The Smurfs 2.’
Netflix has acquired the pay-TV rights to Sony Pictures Animation's movies under a new multiyear agreement, according to a report by The Wrap. Netflix users in the United States can already watch Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and The Smurfs 2, two Sony releases from last year.
Starz controls the rights to Sony's live-action movies through 2021, and Netflix and Starz let their deal expire in 2012.
Netflix has already secured exclusive pay-TV rights to films from DreamWorks Animation, Pixar and Disney.
Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me) and Fox's Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age) have yet to make a deal with the streaming service.
Sony will not release a new animated movie this year, but it will distribute Hotel Transylvania 2 next year as well as at least two new projects in 2016.
Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible first broke news of the deal, which has since been confirmed by Netflix. “…NFLX has now managed to replace much of the content it lost from its discontinued licensing deal with Starz,” Wible wrote. “The Sony deal would only add one or two titles per year to its line-up but gradually increases the company's focus around younger/animated content.”
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
