Xbox 360's streaming movie service through Netflix has made the console into the living room media center that Microsoft always dreamed about. It looks like Nintendo is going to compete by offering its own streaming media service featuring Warner Bros. films... but only in Japan. Awesome!
Even better is that the Warner Bros. film lineup Nintendo is using for their Japan-only service consists primarily of classic Hollywood productions like 2001: A Space Odyssey and more recent blockbusters like Batman Begins and The Last Samurai. Each rental will cost 300 Wii Points and last for 48 hours. Viewing the movies also requires buying the 500 point Everyone's Theater Wii app. The service already offers a lot of Japanese TV programming, including anime and live-action dramas, for viewing.
In the future, Japanese viewers will get some movies released for the Everyone's Theater channel concurrent with the DVD and Blu-Ray releases, such as the upcoming (over there) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There's currently no word about any attempt to create an American equivalent to the Everyone's Theater channel, and really no reason to believe Nintendo of America even wants to bother with it. The Japanese channel is made and backed by a company called Fujisoft that doesn't seem to do business in the West.
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