'Star Wars' to Stream on Latin American Netflix: Disney Hopes to Boost Ticket Sales for 'Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens'
In an attempt attract new viewers to the "Star Wars" franchise, Disney made a deal with Netflix to stream the original films to the Latin American market, reports the Inquisitr.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Disney wants to boost the Sci-Fi epic to other markets that have not quite caught the "Star Wars" fever.
Surprisingly, there are still some countries in which the "Star Wars" franchise has yet to make a lasting appearance. While the intergalactic movie franchise is popular in the United States and Europe, awareness of "Star Wars" is still sparse in other countries, like those found in Latin America.
Disney believes that tapping into the Latin American market could potentially help boost ticket and merchandise sales, when "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" hits theaters this December.
According to the Orlando Business Journal, Disney has granted Netflix the rights to all the original "Star Wars" films, except for the very first movie in the franchise, which came out in 1977.
Even though Disney bought Lucasfilm Ltd. For $4 billion back in 2012, it still does not have the rights to "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope." Twentieth Century Fox still owns the rights to the very first "Star Wars" movie, and Netflix will have to broker a deal with Fox studios for streaming rights.
However, there is still hope that the first installment of the franchise will be available on Netflix. Fox recently made a deal with Disney to release all six "Star Wars" films in China, which is now the second largest movie market in the world.
The original movies will be streamed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., a Chinese Internet company. The deal is yet another attempt to make more countries aware of the "Star Wars" franchise.
To further widen the popular franchise's audience, Disney announced a toy marketing campaign a few weeks ago. The company plans to release new "Star Wars" toys in events worldwide. There are a lot of events geared towards countries in which the "Star Wars" franchise is not yet popular, including: Japan, Australia and South Korea.
Deadline notes that Disney's global marketing strategies will greatly affect the sale numbers for "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens." Taking in the company's latest financial moves, the site predicts that Episode VII will rake in $615 million on its worldwide opening alone.