Netflix buys exclusive rights to Weinstein Company movies

Colin Firth in Weinstein Company film The King's Speech

Netflix has signed a deal with another major film production company, bagging the streaming rights to every Weinstein Company film from 2016.

The two companies already had a deal which included streaming rights for The Artist, as well other foreign films and documentaries. This new deal augments that arrangement, and includes the output of Dimension Films - a subsidiary of The Weinstein Company (TWC).

Investors welcomed the arrangement, with Netflix's stock surging to a new two-year high of $273.53 before retreating slightly. The shares rose $13.51, or more than 5 per cent, to finish at $273.29 on Tuesday.

The deal means the channel's subscribers can see all TWC's films, beginning with those which hit cinemas in 2016. A similar Netflix agreement with Disney kicks in around then too.

Financial terms of the latest deal weren't disclosed.

Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer: "We look forward to reinventing the pay TV window with the Weinsteins."

Netflix has been spending heavily to gain exclusive content licensing rights and finance its own original programming - which includes Emmy-nominated political drama House of Cards, and the latest series of Arrested Development.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wants to attract 60 million to 90 million US subscribers. Netflix ended June with nearly 30 million subscribers in the US and 7.75 million international customers in 39 other countries.

TWC was launched in 2005 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films in 1979. Since then, it has released two films that have won the Best Picture Oscar - The Artist and The King's Speech.

Last year it released Silver Linings Playbook, Killing Them Softly and Django Unchained.