Want to do more on Facebook than tend to your virtual farm and find out what your high school lab partner had for lunch? Warner Bros. announced Tuesday that it is kicking off a test of a service that will let you rent its movies through the social-networking site.
Starting today, Facebook users who have "liked" Warner Bros.'s "The Dark Knight" can rent the movie through the film's official Facebook page. The studio is handling payment through Facebook Credits, and one, 48-hour rental will set you back 30 Facebook Credits, or $3.
The offering is currently only available in the United States, though the movie's Facebook page said the feature is not valid in all states; more movies will be made available to rent and buy in the coming months.
"Facebook has become a daily destination for hundreds of millions of people," Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, said in a statement. "Making our films available through Facebook is a natural extension of our digital distribution efforts. It gives consumers a simple, convenient way to access and enjoy our films through the world's largest social network."
Movie watching will run like most streaming services; users can watch in full screen, pause and resume when they log back into Facebook. Given that this is a social-networking site, users can post comments on the movie, interact with friends, and update their status while watching.
Last month, Warner Bros. released "The Dark Knight" and "Inception" as iOS apps. Users can download an app and stream the first five minutes of the film for free on mobile devices, and then pay $9.99 and $18.99, respectively, to unlock the rest of the movie and a variety of special features.