IMDb

IMDb is a huge list online. It has info on movies and shows. It also has video games. You can find names of actors there. You can see who made the films too.

People can give shows a score. This helps others find good things to watch. One movie is very high on the list. It has been there for a long time.

Some people help by adding facts. They add photos or fun stories. You can even make a profile. This lets you show your own scores. It is a big way to learn about movies.

IMDb is a massive online list. It holds info on movies and TV shows. It also lists video games and podcasts. As of September 2025, it had 25.9 million titles. It also had 14.8 million records for people. This makes it a very big source of facts.

Users can give shows a score. The site uses a special formula to rank them. This is called a credibility formula. It means a score is better if many people vote. The Top 250 list shows the best films. One film, The Shawshank Redemption, has been number one since 2008. The list also has a Top 250 for TV shows. It even has a Bottom 100 list.

People can help build the site. They add facts like trivia or bios. They can also add photos. Some users pay for IMDbPro. This is a special service for people in the movie business. It lets them manage their own pages. IMDb started in 1990 as a hobby. A man named Col Needham kept lists of films he watched. Later, it moved to the web in 1993.

IMDb is a huge online library of information. It holds facts about films, TV shows, podcasts, and video games. As of September 2025, the site had 25.9 million titles. It also had 14.8 million records for people. This makes it a very important place for fans. It is a very popular website too. In the United States, it is the 35th most visited site. Worldwide, it ranks as the 40th most visited.

Users can help the site grow by adding details. They can write plot summaries or fun trivia. They can even add biographies for actors. Since 2015, users can earn badges for their work. These badges show how much someone has helped. Some people pay for a service called IMDbPro. This costs US$149.99 every year. It is for people working in the movie business. They can upload headshots and manage their own pages. They can also find contact info for agents.

Many people want to know which movies are the best. IMDb makes a special list called the Top 250. This list shows the 250 highest-rated films. The movie The Shawshank Redemption has been number one since 2008. To keep the list fair, IMDb uses a credibility formula. This is a math tool used in science. It means a rating is more credible if many people vote. The site only counts votes from "regular voters." They keep the exact rules for these voters a secret. There is also a Bottom 100 list for other films.

This project started as a small hobby. A man named Col Needham kept film notes since 1987. He worked as an engineer at Hewlett-Packard in Bristol. In 1990, he shared these lists on a system called Usenet. It was then called the "rec.arts.movies movie database." By 1993, it moved to the World Wide Web. At that time, it was the Cardiff Internet Movie Database. It lived on servers at Cardiff University in Wales. Rob Hartill wrote the first web interface for it. In 1996, it became a real company in the UK.

Amazon bought IMDb in April 1998. Jeff Bezos paid $55 million for it. Since then, the site has changed a lot. It used to have message boards for fans to talk. Those boards were removed in February 2017. The company said they did not help most users. Some people were upset and signed a petition. Over 8,000 people signed that petition. IMDb also tried making streaming services. One was called Freedive, then IMDb TV. It later became Amazon Freevee. On December 30, 2024, it merged into Amazon Prime Video.

IMDb is a massive online database containing information about entertainment. It tracks details for films, television series, podcasts, video games, and streaming content. This information includes cast lists, production crew members, and biographies. It also hosts plot summaries, trivia, user ratings, and reviews from both fans and critics. As of September 2025, the database held approximately 25.9 million titles. It also contained 14.8 million person records. This huge collection makes it a primary resource for the entertainment industry and fans alike.

Because it is so large, IMDb is a very popular destination on the internet. As of September 2025, it ranked as the 40th most visited website in the world. In the United States, it held the 35th most visited spot. The site offers various ways for users to interact with the data. Registered users have profile pages that show their registration date. They can also save their personal ratings for different titles. Since 2015, the site has used badges to recognize contributors. These badges show a count of how much a person has helped with categories like photos, trivia, or biographies.

One of the most famous parts of the site is the IMDb Top 250. This is a list of the 250 highest-rated films based on user ratings. The film *The Shawshank Redemption* (1994) has held the top spot since 2008. To keep the list accurate, IMDb uses a specific mathematical method. They use a weighted rating formula known in actuarial science as a credibility formula. In statistics, a result is considered more credible when there are more pieces of information. Therefore, the more eligible users who vote, the more reliable the rating becomes. IMDb does not disclose the exact criteria used to define a "regular voter."

The Top 250 list includes many different types of movies. It features major releases, independent films, and cult classics. It also includes silent films and non-English-language films. However, it currently does not include documentaries, short films, or TV episodes. There is a separate Top 250 list for television shows that began in 2015. There is also a Bottom 100 feature for films. To qualify for the Bottom 100 list, a film must receive at least 10,000 votes.

IMDb has a professional side called IMDbPro. This service is designed for people working in the entertainment industry. Actors, crew members, and executives can pay a yearly fee of US$149.99 for membership. This allows them to post resumes and upload professional headshots. It also lets them manage their own pages and upload hundreds of photos. Industry members can use IMDbPro to find agent contact information and see the rank order of industry personalities. This professional tool helps connect people within the business.

The history of IMDb began as a small hobby. Col Needham, an engineer at Hewlett-Packard, had kept a personal film database since 1987. In 1990, he shared these lists on a Usenet group called "rec.arts.movies." At that time, it was known as the "rec.arts.movies movie database." By 1993, the database moved to the World Wide Web. It was then called the Cardiff Internet Movie Database. It lived on the servers of the computer science department at Cardiff University in Wales. Rob Hartill was the author of the original web interface.

In 1996, IMDb was incorporated as a company in the United Kingdom. In April 1998, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, bought IMDb. Amazon paid $55 million for IMDb and two other companies. Since then, IMDb has functioned as an Amazon subsidiary. The company has also explored streaming services. They launched Freedive in 2019, which was later rebranded as IMDb TV. This service eventually became Amazon Freevee. On December 30, 2024, the service was closed as an independent site and merged into Amazon Prime Video. The site has also seen the removal of features, such as the message boards in February 2017. This decision was made because the boards did not provide a positive experience for the 250 million monthly users.