Bigscreen today announced is bringing ad-supported movies to the free social viewing platform, which will allow users to watch select films for free.

Bigscreen first brought paid on-demand movie rentals to its virtual cinemas early last year, which was the result of multiple partnerships with movie studios such as Paramount Pictures.

Now Bigscreen is bringing free movies hosted by PlutoTV, which much like their streaming TV content, will have intermittent ads sandwiched in between. A big difference between steaming TV and the new ad-supported film service is that films can be watched on-demand, and in any Bigscreen environment.

Image courtesy Bigscreen

Film availability depends on your physical location, however Bigscreen says content coming to US-based users includes Arrival, Seabiscuit, Clueless, Nacho Libre, Adventureland, Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity 4, It Follows, “and more.” The studio says it’s adding new films each month.

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“Bigscreen has added many integrations with streaming services over the past year, such as Twitch, PlutoTV, and Adult Swim,” the studio says. “We plan to integrate more streaming services in the future, [and] we’re actively working on built-in YouTube support next. As previously announced, we are also developing a Friends System and a new technology to enable large groups of people to stream ultra-low latency video in VR.”

The new ad-supported film is coming to all supported platforms today, which includes SteamVR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • kontis

    In before kids decry this the end of VR while spending 10 hours every day watching Youtube with ads.

  • I can’t even watch most of the 3D movies in my country, Scotland, so I don’t even know if this will work for me or not. This stuff has to be done in such a way that it’s available regardless of your region, or else it’s just kinda stupid imo.

    • Hivemind9000

      A VPN doesn’t work for you? I’m in Australia and having a decent VPN is a way of life here due to the stupid, antiquated regional protections the TV/movie industries still cling to. I use NordVPN for a few bucks a month.

      • xXx

        Does it work with Oculus Quest?

        • Hivemind9000

          Good point. With Facebook wanting to control everything, I doubt you could, unless you stream it from your PC via Oculus Link?

      • I don’t like using random additional programs and stuff like that, and certainly ones that suggest they are letting you get around regions and avoiding people checking on your system and the like but probably also have clauses that say “We can share your data with anyone including law and so on”. Basically, I don’t really know how VPNs work, they’re not very transparent and are doing a lot of stuff under the surface that I’m not entirely sure about and/or comfortable with–especially when you see sell-out sights like IGN and so on pushing them in their glorified ad articles (like maybe they have some hidden interest in pushing such things)–and I don’t like that.

        • Hivemind9000

          You’ve made a lot of assumptions there.

          VPNs are quite straight forward – you essentially are just proxying through one of their servers wherever you want to be in the world, and that’s about it. It just gives you an IP address within your country of choice.

          VPNs like NordVPN don’t keep logs as a base tenet of their service, but if you’re just using it to watch videos in another country, then you don’t even need to worry or care if they do or don’t.

          Not sure what you mean about IGN pushing ads – you know that’s how they stay afloat and pay their hard working journalists, right? Anyway, it is of course your choice to do whatever – just trying to help…

    • Blankfrak

      Use a VPN.

      • I don’t like using random additional programs and stuff like that, and certainly ones that suggest they are letting you get around regions and avoiding people checking on your system and the like but probably also have clauses that say “We can share your data with anyone including law and so on”. Basically, I don’t really know how VPNs work, they’re not very transparent and are doing a lot of stuff under the surface that I’m not entirely sure about and/or comfortable with–especially when you see sell-out sights like IGN and so on pushing them in their glorified ad articles (like maybe they have some hidden interest in pushing such things)–and I don’t like that.

        • FrankB

          If you do I little research you can find a reputable VPN. NordVPN is highly recommended. Don’t use any free ones obviously, most paid ones are fairly priced and worth every penny. There’s plenty of valid reasons for using a VPN, its not just for hiding piracy or cheating regions. It has a vital internet safety function. Macafee security include a VPN with their virus software.

  • Zack71

    No films in Italian!

    • TechPassion

      who cares? Learn English :)

      • Zack71

        Naa, too difficult, I prefer use other devices…

        • Zack71

          (And I will never use Bigscreen)

  • Cool!

  • UN

    I just with BigScreen stopped fiddling with on-again, off-again micro updates every 2-3 days and just released volume control for each individual in a theater, on-top of the volume for the theater.
    Its 20min mucking around with audio everytime you enter, just to get the balance right so you can barely hear the movie and barely hear your friends.