Miramax eXperience streams movies on Facebook

Netflix and Hulu partner brings its best titles, from Pulp Fiction to Good Will Hunting, to Facebook

Miramax on Monday launched its first-ever digital app, the Miramax eXperience, on the Facebook platform.

Within the app, users can watch movie clips (or entire feature films) and play games, all within a Miramax-branded environment built for sharing with friends on the Facebook network. The app lets anyone around the world watch videos from Facebook on the Web, iPad or Google TV; while clips are free to watch, movies are paid for in Facebook Credits.

By the looks of it, movies can be rented for 30 Facebook Credits, or $3 cash.

Already, Miramax says over 50 million people have mentioned Miramax films in their profiles, interacted with the Miramax page or liked the fan pages of Miramax films and talent. In the next year and a half, the studio hopes to expand its reach to 150 million users.

Perhaps equally important as the launch of Miramax eXperience is the studio’s seamless shift into the world of social media and technology.

Referring to its new app, Miramax writes, “...notice the word beta.  I know you don’t hear that word a lot from movie studios.  Usually we premiere a film after working on it for years, see how it does over a weekend or two and then move on to the next project — for those in the technology world this must sound like a crazy business…

“Our goal in building this App in just 8 short weeks (with the help of Ooyala and AllDigital) is to emulate what Facebook does better than any company in the world — don’t wait for perfection; launch and then iterate, iterate and iterate again.  We encourage you to track our progress and come back to see fresh content, improved user functionality and information on other Miramax initiatives, such as new films or TV shows.  And tell us what you think on our fan page www.facebook.com/miramax or @Miramax on Twitter.”

(Don’t wait for perfection? Iterate and iterate? Sounds like Miramax paid heed to advice from Henry Blodget’s keynote at Vator Splash NY 2010.)

In general, Miramax has done a fabulous job of moving its films online. Today’s app launch is preceded by multi-year deals with Netflix in May and Hulu in June, both of which can now stream hundreds of Miramax titles online.

Meanwhile, Facebook is itself poised to become a massive entertainment hub. With Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently appointed to the social network’s board of directors, that goal seems more than ever a top-tier priority for the company.