Internet Movie Database Launches Pro Version

The Internet Movie Database ( http://www.imdb.com) launched a pay version, IMDbPro.com ( http://www.imdbpro.com) last week. This pay version will cost $12.95 monthly with 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month subscription discounts (a year's subscription is $99.95.)

Aimed at people in the entertainment industry, IMDbPro provides industry-specific information, including STARmeter and MOVIEmeter rankings of popularity for all one million actors, crew, and filmmakers in the database, as well as nearly 300,000 titles. The rankings are based on searches and page views of the people who visit IMDb.com. The rankings are updated weekly and graph person and title popularity back to 1998. There's also a calendar of releases and industry events and expanded box office data and analysis.

This new site doesn't mean that the original Internet Movie Database is going anywhere. Barnaby Dorfman, Group Product manager, explains thustly: "The reason for the split is that we recognize we have two distinct user groups: Entertainment Industry Users and Movie Loving Consumers. Up until this point, we have had a one size fits all solution. As we planned enhancements to the site, we found ourselves often compromising features to accommodate one group at the expense of the other. This will actually make it easier for us to add features to the IMDb.com that Consumers have come to know and love." He added that IMDb will remain free to users and is largely supported by advertising.

Even if you don't care to subscribe, there's a certain amount of material on the IMDbPro front page. You can get the latest box office grosses (that's 242 millllllyun dollars for Harry Potter) the top ten lists for STARmeter and MOVIEmeter, upcoming releases, and an example of how IMDbPro's advanced queries work. If you're big time into movies, this is worth a look.

Posted to Entertainment-Movies