Today at SXSW, AMC Networks introduced Yeah!, a movie rental service the company says "curates iconic films with original new content" like trivia, random factoids, and interviews with cast and crew. 14 films are available from the outset, with selections including Clerks, Scream, The Terminator, and Natural Born Killers. Each week AMC will pull from its deep film vault and add another flick to the collection. There's one immediate hurdle, though, and that's pricing. Each movie is priced at $4.99 for a 48-hour rental — a rate that strikes us as astonishingly high — but AMC seems to be think its never-before-seen bonus features will be enough to justify the bold asking price. Films can also be rented sans any bonus content for less extreme rates that vary between $1.99 and $3.99
$4.99 seems a bit too pricey, even with extras
So far, AMC says it has hand picked between 400 and 500 pieces of extra content to complement Yeah! offerings. The company is promising a seamless experience for the end user, claiming that video clips and production facts will pop up "without obscuring the movie." For now you're limited to watching from a laptop or PC, but AMC is planning to release a Yeah! iPad app this summer. There are certainly some flaws in the initial offering (mandatory Facebook login for one) and we're not sure who's going to pay $5 to watch Clerks in 2013, but AMC dipping its toes into the streaming war is notable all the same.
Other films AMC says will arrive on Yeah! in the comings months include: 300, Superman: The Movie, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2, No Country for Old Men, Pulp Fiction, The Expendables, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Dirty Dancing, The Shining, Watchmen, This is Spinal Tap, The Blair Witch Project, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Apocalypse Now Redux.