Movieclips grabs $7M in funding, partners with YouTube

Movieclips on Tuesday announced that it had raised a $7 million round of funding and partnered with YouTube to bring its 20,000 HD movie clips to a much bigger audience.

“First and foremost, this helps studios eliminate piracy because these are licesened clips,” Movieclips co-founder Zach James told VentureBeat. “And it helps users too. Instead of searching for your favorite scene from Scarface and finding a scene done by kindergartners, you’ll get to watch the actual movie clip.”

Not only will studios have less of their clips pirated on YouTube, but the partnership lets studios, Movieclips, and YouTube split ad revenue. The model is similar to what Vevo and Machinima already do for music and gaming videos.

The $7 million funding round is being led by MK Capital, which is also the largest investor in Machinima.

“As the once-huge DVD market continues to be rapidly replaced by online movie purchases, rentals and subscriptions, we believe a searchable video-based clip experience will be the preferred way most movie fans will discover and select movies,” said Mark Terbeek, a partner at MK Capital, in a statement.

James said Movieclips is working hard to greatly expand its network of clips to 100,000 and plans to include things like trailers, on-set visits, interviews with movie stars, and special features.

“We want this to be the network for video about movies, not just movie clips themselves,” James said. “Soon it will be a much bigger and more diverse collection.”

I for one love re-watching my favorite film scenes (like this one), so the partnership between Movieclips and YouTube is great for movie fanatics, who want high-quality clips, and studios, which are looking for new ways to monetize online videos.

Filed under: media