People can watch newly-released movies in cinemas on their smartphones in China

Former Legendary Pictures executive launches new movie-on-demand app

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The Smart Cinema app streams movies that are still running in theaters. (Picture: CCTV)

Published: 6:45pm, 11 May 2018Updated: 8:25am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

It’s hard to beat the convenience of streaming services like Netflix -- the ability to watch an enormous number of films on virtually any device at any time. The one downside? You have to wait a while after a film has landed in cinemas for it to reach streaming services.

Now one company in China says it’s streaming films to smartphone users while they’re still playing in the theater.

Launched this week, the Smart Cinema app is created by Jack Gao -- a former executive at the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, which owns US media giants AMC Entertainment and Legendary.

It works a bit similar to video rentals on iTunes or Amazon. The price for one of the few films available now, a Brazilian drama, is around US$4. But unlike on iTunes, Smart Cinema only lets viewers watch a film once -- if you want to see it again, you’ll have to pay again.

As China’s streaming giants have discovered, China’s younger generation is increasingly willing to pay to watch videos online. Baidu’s iQiyi said during the first two months of this year alone, it added 10 million paying subscribers -- bringing the total to more than 60 million. And Tencent Video says it has more than 62 million paying customers.