Wii Goes To The Movies

The Wii might not be the "media center" of your home yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't on it's way. In addition to the expansive Channels of the Wii, ranging from Weather to the Internet, a new service called "Everyone's Theater Wii" will allow Wii owners to rent movies for a small fee.

Currently, the application is only available in Japan, where Wii owners can download it for 500 Wii Points ($5.00) and rent Warner Bros. movies for 300 Wii Points ($3.00), which they can view for 48 hours. However, it seems that Nintendo will certainly release this same Channel in the U.S.

The service began today in Japan and launched with a total of 54 movies, such as: Batman Begins, Goonies, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Free Willy, and plenty more. That's quite expansive, considering the fact that only Warner Bros. movies are available.

This could be a major stepping stone in the development and the future of the Wii. Right now, only movies previously released are available, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button will be released on this service on the same day it is released on DVD in Japan. In the future, a similar music service could also become available, and the Wii might become the "media center" of everyone's homes.

In other movie news, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, has broken the midnight records set by The Dark Knight. Harry Potter's $22.2 million opening night easily beat out the $18.5 million made by The Dark Knight in it's opening night. According to the trends, it seems that the sequel to this movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which is to be split into two movies) will likely break this record as well.

Image credit: "Gambit's Blog" (here).