With all the the deftness and power of a martial artist, the apple cart-upsetting online broadcaster Netflix has turned its sights to the movie industry.

The company, which has spent the last three years turning the traditional TV distribution model on its head and creating original TV content, has commissioned its first feature film.

The film - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, a sequel to Ang Lee's martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - will premiere in August, 2015, the company has confirmed.

The film, which has commenced filming in New Zealand, will star Harry Shum Jr, Jason Scott Lee, Roger Yuan, Eugenia Yuan and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. It will be released via the Netflix platform, a subscriber based video streaming service. It will also be released in some IMAX cinemas.

For the project, Netflix is partnering with one of Hollywood's most powerful independent film studios, The Weinstein Company. The Weinstein Company's co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said: "The movie-going experience is evolving quickly and profoundly, and Netflix is unquestionably at the forefront of that movement."

But top theatre chains in the United States have already come out in opposition to bowing down to the new Weinstein Co. deal with Netflix and IMAX.

On Monday night, Weinstein Co. announced it will simultaneously debut a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel on Netflix and IMAX theatres on August 28.  But Regal, the nation's largest theatre chain, said in an effort to continue "presenting movies on a grand scale", it will not play the film in any of its 86 IMAX theatres across the United States.

"While a home video release may be simultaneously performing in certain IMAX locations, at Regal we will not participate in an experiment where you can see the same product on screens varying from three stories tall to 3 inches (7.6cm) wide on a smartphone," said Russ Nunley, Regal's vice president of marketing and communications.

"We believe the choice for truly enjoying a magnificent movie is clear."

Other companies took similar stances. "Cinemark does not play day-and-date movie releases on any of our screens including the 14 IMAX screens that we operate," said James Meredith, spokesman for Cinemark USA, which operates the nation's third-largest theatre chain.

Carmike Cinemas, the nation's fourth-largest chain, which has 15 IMAX theatres, said: "We are committed to an exclusive theatrical release for the enjoyment of our valued guests. We are therefore opposed to showing day-and-date releases at our entertainment complexes."

And AMC Theatres, the nation's second-largest theatre chain owned by China's Dalian Wanda Group, indicated it had no plans to show the movie. AMC is the largest operator of IMAX auditoriums in the world.  "No one has approached us to license this made-for-video sequel in the US or China, so one must assume the screens IMAX committed are in science centers or aquariums," the company said.

Shares of Regal Entertainment Group on Tuesday morning were at $US19.88 ($22.73), down 19 cents or about 1 percent. Meanwhile, shares for IMAX Corp. were at $US27.46, down 13 cents or 0.47 percent. Netflix's stock rose almost 2 percent.

Although Netflix has existed for more than a decade as a movie rental service, it is only in the last half-dozen years that its power as a streaming platform has pushed it to the frontline of the new media landscape.

Historically such services were re-broadcasters of acquired content, but Netflix upset that apple cart by commissioning its own original content, notably the scripted dramas House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

The announcement of its move into the realm of theatrical motion pictures is designed to rattle the status quo by effectively creating a film which bypasses Hollywood's traditional film distribution framework.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend will effectively go straight from the studio's post-production to the home television viewer, ignoring the cinema and DVD release "windows". (Albeit with a brief stopover in some IMAX cinemas.)

Ironically, in historical terms, that was a fate reserved for only the worst films, only slightly worse than "straight to DVD" schlockbusters.

While the move has generated headlines in Hollywood about Netflix upsetting yet another apple cart, in truth Netflix is as much a part of the traditional studio system as the traditional film studios the move would seem to be aimed at.

Much of Netflix's library of films is acquired via deals with those same studios and it is in Netflix's best interest, as much as it is the studios', to keep that content stream flowing.

"Fans will have unprecedented choice in how they enjoy an amazing and memorable film that combines intense action and incredible beauty," Netflix boss Ted Sarandos said.

"We are honoured to be working with Harvey Weinstein and a world-class team of creators to bring this epic story to people all over the world."

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