You rent one film at a time
There is no subscription. You pay for a film and can watch it twice before the rental runs out. Filmmakers set the length; most choose 48 hours.
The receipt shows where your money goes
Checkout lists the rental price, streaming at $2 per 1,000 minutes, and card processing. A 90-minute film rented for $2.99 comes to $3.57.
Try it with any film →Ask for a film we don’t have
Post the title, or upvote one someone else posted. We show the counts to filmmakers when we ask them to join.
Invite friends with your link
You get one invite link. Anyone who signs in through it shows up in your friends list.
You keep 80%
On a $2.99 rental you get $2.39, paid out by Stripe. Streaming and card processing are added to the buyer’s total, so they never come out of your share.
Storage is your only cost
We charge a year of storage when your film is approved, at what the storage costs us. For a 90-minute film that’s $5.87. Nothing is charged while it waits for review, or if it’s turned down.
You set the price
Pick any price from $1.99 up, and how many hours a rental lasts.
We review every film
Usually within a few days. You’ll need a finished upload and your own poster image before you can submit.
Choose the countries where it can be rented
For when you’ve sold a distributor the rights in one country. Leave the film worldwide, list countries to leave out, or list the only countries allowed.
How region settings work ↓Region settings
Distributors often buy the exclusive rights to a film in one country. A filmmaker with a deal like that can stop DirectCut renting the film there and keep selling it everywhere else. Each film has one of three settings.
Anyone, anywhere DirectCut operates, can rent and watch.
The default for every film.
Rentable everywhere except the countries you list.
A distributor bought the US rights, so the film is offered everywhere but the US.
Rentable only in the countries you list.
The rights are cleared for the UK and Ireland only, so only viewers there can rent it.
If a film isn't available where you are
You won't see it when you browse. If someone sends you a link, the page says it isn't available in your country and there's nothing to buy.
Traveling with a rental
We check when you press play. If you rent a film at home and travel to a country it isn't available in, it won't play there. The rental keeps counting down while you're away.
How we know where you are
From your internet connection's IP address. We don't use GPS. When we can't place you at all (Tor, for example), films with a region setting won't play, though worldwide films will.
Where DirectCut isn't available
Because of sanctions and payment restrictions, DirectCut doesn't offer films in Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Syria, or in the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.