Demand Film wants to pay you to watch movies. The Australian cinema-on-demand distributor has launched new cryptocurrency called Screencreds, which rewards users who watch and promote trailers for their upcoming releases, The Hollywood Reporter reported on Friday.
This means that fans who watch and share trailers, spread word of the company's films and promote the movie through social media will get paid. When someone tweets a movie trailer they think looks cool, for example, they could be paid for that by Demand Films.
Screencreds give users an incentive to market and promote the company's films. When a user watches or shares a trailer they will earn tokens of Screencreds, which is based on a blockchain technology, CEO and managing director David Doepel told THR. Blockchain is the same technology as other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
"Users will be getting paid for what they are doing already," Doepel said. "Watching trailers, sharing them, promoting our movies to their friends."
"Payment will be based on influence," he added. "The more people see the shared trailer and the more people that then buy tickets to our screenings, the more Screencreds users earn."
Tokens can be exchanged for movie tickets to screenings and VIP events like meet and greets with directors and talent. Demand Film is also administering the use of Screencreds to pay royalties to filmmakers. Working on a revenue split model, filmmakers will receive a cut of the ticket sales when their movies screen in theaters. Doepel says that with a cryptocurrency the payment would be "automatic" which means the filmmaker would be paid "right away."
Since Demand Film often showcases smaller films and niche documentaries, the Screencred model, with its lack of exchange rates and banking fees, has proven to be financially beneficial for small films and releases, according to Doepel.
The concept of Screencreds comes prior to Demand Film's launch in Germany on Tuesday. Demand Film, founded in 2016, has typically operated in the English-speaking world, so their venture into Germany will mark the company's first step towards non-English language operations.
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