Facebook's First Ever Film Premiere Is Happening This Month

The first ever ticketed Facebook film premiere is set to take place this month. The documentary The Outsider will debut exclusively on Facebook on August 19.

The Outsider will be available globally on Facebook Live for just 12 hours, starting August 19 at 8 PM ET until August 20 at 8 AM. Tickets cost $4, which includes access to a Q&A with the filmmakers following the film. Following this, the film will be available on distributor Abramorama's on-demand platform, before hitting selected theaters in September.

The Outsider is directed by Pamela Yoder and Steven Rosenbaum and focuses on the challenging and controversial construction of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York, which opened in 2014. It follows the experiences of Michael Shulan, a writer and photographer who documented the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks and was appointed creative director of the 9/11 museum.

While The Outsider will be the first movie to premiere on Facebook, the company continues to develop its own original programming for its Facebook Watch on-demand service. The animated horror series Woman in the Book was released in June, and in September last year, Facebook claimed that the service reaches 1.25 billion viewers a month. However, the company counts anything over one minute as a view.