Internet movie database

On October 17, 1990 , when the Usenet rec.arts.movies newsgroup, which brought together a number of moviegoers, decided to index its FAQ , which by then contained more than 19 thousand articles on about 17 thousand films and television series , one of the founders of IMDb (and its current CEO) Kol Needham has written a number of Unix scripts for organizing a movie database. IMDb has always been strictly based on open source software . Then the base was called "rek.art.movie movie database", the name "Internet Movie Database" arose later.

Gradually, the base grew and improved technically. In 1995, the base appeared on the World Wide Web on the server of Cardiff University in Wales . Even then, the base was very popular on the Internet . In January 1996, the Internet Movie Database, Ltd company was formed, the shareholders of which were the developers of the base. Despite the great popularity, the base continued to be a hobby, a hobby - most of the base developers had another permanent place of work.

Soon the base ran out of university server resources and moved to dedicated servers in the USA and the UK . After a year, there were already 7 dedicated servers, but these capacities were not enough. Maintaining the database has become more difficult; there were not enough resources to develop the site. Several companies offered to buy IMDb, but base enthusiasts did not trust them - these companies saw in IMDb not a unique project for moviegoers, but a marketing platform.

In 1996, Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com contacted IMDb. He offered to buy part of the shares of IMDb, subject to the full preservation of universal free access to IMDb resources. In exchange for investment, he wanted for Amazon.com only the right to sell film production through IMDb.com. Since then, cooperation between IMDb and Amazon.com has begun, thanks to the latter, server capacities have been significantly expanded, dividends are paid to IMDb Ltd shareholders , many IMDb enthusiasts were hired, and new staff were hired. Today it is one of the few examples of successful interaction between big business and the community of movie enthusiasts - altruists .

Many sections of the database are still largely filled and corrected by volunteers, similar to what happens on wiki projects; There is a system for assessing the contribution of active participants ^[3] . IMDb is used as a basic source of information for cinematic Wikipedia articles, but it is not recognized as reliable enough to be used as the main or sole source on the topic.

Thousands of people monthly visit the IMDb database; this is one of the forty most popular sites on the World Wide Web. However, to get more information about the film, you need to register on the site.

A popular feature of IMDb is online voting. Any registered visitor to the site can vote for films by rating them: from 1 (“worst movie”) to 10 (“masterpiece”) points. Thus, the IMDb revealed the 250 best films of all time according to visitors, as well as the 100 worst films . When compiling a rating of the 250 best films, the votes of not all voters are taken into account. Measures are being taken to avoid "wrapping up" the vote counter. In particular, only the votes of constantly voting participants are taken into account. There are separate ratings of films by genre, by decade, etc.

Best IMDb Movies

Top 25 films as of February 26, 2019:

1. The Shawshank Redemption ( Frank Darabont , 1994)   (2.02M)
2. The Godfather ( Francis Ford Coppola , 1972)   (1.24M)
3. The Godfather 2 ( Francis Ford Coppola , 1974)   (852k)
4. The Dark Knight ( Christopher Nolan , 2008)   (1.79M)
5. 12 Angry Men ( Sidney Lumet , 1957)   (491k)
6. Schindler's List ( Steven Spielberg , 1993)   (931k)
7. Pulp Fiction ( Quentin Tarantino , 1994)   (1.42M)
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ( Peter Jackson , 2003)   (1.30M)
9. Good, Bad, Angry ( Sergio Leone , 1966)   (538k)
10. Fight Club ( David Fincher , 1999)   (1.30M)
11. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ( Peter Jackson , 2001)   (1.32M)
12. Star Wars. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back ( Irwin Kerschner , 1980)   (906k)
13. Forrest Gump ( Robert Zemeckis , 1994)   (1.36M)
14. The Beginning ( Christopher Nolan , 2010)   (1,59M)
15. The Lord of the Rings: Two Fortresses ( Peter Jackson , 2002)   (1,18M)
16. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ( Milos Forman , 1975)   (726k)
17. Nice Guys ( Martin Scorsese , 1990)   (783k)
18. The Matrix ( Larry and Andy Wachowski , 1999)   (1.31M)
19. Seven Samurai ( Akira Kurosawa , 1954)   (245k)
20. Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope ( George Lucas , 1977)   (979k)
21. City of God ( Fernando Meyrellish , 2002)   (568k)
22. Seven ( David Fincher , 1995)   (1,1M)
23. The Silence of the Lambs ( Jonathan Demmey , 1991)   (962k)
24. This beautiful life ( Frank Capra , 1946)   (299k)
25. Life is beautiful ( Roberto Benigni , 1997)   (504k)

Soviet and Russian films in IMDb

Almost all Soviet and Russian films, series and cartoons are included in IMDb, while many of them have a rather high rating, but a small number of ratings. Only a few of the Soviet (“ Stalker ”, “ Solaris ”, “ Battleship“ Potemkin “ ”, “ Go and See ” and others) and Russian (“ Night Watch ”, managed to get the 250 best 25,000 votes required by the rules “ Day Watch ”, “ Mongol ”, “ Leviathan ”, “ Return ”, and other) films. On June 2, 2017, three Soviet ones were in the list of 250 best: Andrei Rublev (film) in 148th place, “ Go and See ” in 178th place and “ Stalker ” in 208th place - and Russian:

List of 60 best Soviet films as of February 26, 2019 (at least 1000 ratings):

1. Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973)   (3151)
2. The meeting place cannot be changed (1979)   (3479)
3. Dog Heart (1988)   (5197)
4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1981)   (4422)
5. Father of a Soldier (1964)   (3477)
6. The same Munchausen (1979)   (2640)
7. Operation Y (1965)   (10016)
8. Gentlemen of Fortune (1971)   (7627)
9. Some old people go into battle (1974)   (3090)
10. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: Mortal Kombat (1980)   (1934)
11. The Diamond Arm (1968)   (11040)
12. Prisoner of the Caucasus (1967)   (7586)
13. Office Romance (1977)   (5542)
14. 12 chairs (1976)   (3232)
15. Ordinary Miracle (1979)   (2087)
16. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Treasures of Agra (1983)   (1831)
17. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1979)   (1880)
18. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The King of Blackmail (1980)   (1728)
19. Golden Calf (1968)   (1638)
20. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Tiger Hunt (1980)   (1635)
21. A man with a movie camera (1929)   (16k)
22. Ivan Vasilievich changes his profession (1973)   (11k)
23. Irony of Fate or Enjoy Your Bath! (1975)   (8318)
24. 12 chairs (1971)   (4024)
25. Repentance (1984)   (2954)
26. And the dawns here are quiet (1972)   (2520)
27. Hamlet (1964)   (1974)
28. Guest from the Future (1985)   (1589)
29. White Bim Black Ear (1977)   (1286)
30. Dersu Uzala (1975)   (18k)
31. Cranes Are Flying (1957)   (11k)
32. Ascent (1976)   (4181)
33. Beware of the car (1966)   (3221)
34. Pokrovsky Gate (1983)   (1809)
35. Ordinary Fascism (1965)   (1039)
36. The Mirror (1975)   (24k)
37. Nostalgia (1983)   (14k)
38. Kin-dza-dza (1986)   (9181)
39. Moscow does not believe in tears (1980)   (8524)
40. Love and Pigeons (1985)   (2361)
41. Garage (1980)   (2256)
42. D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers (1979)   (2247)
43. Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964)   (1628)
44. Formula of Love (1984)   (1551)
45. Sibiriada (1979)   (1486)
46. Ivan childhood (1962)   (20k)
47. Ballad of a Soldier (1959)   (7682)
48. The fate of man (1959)   (1899)
49. King Lear (1971)   (1095)
50. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)   (4372)
51. Athos (1975)   (2285)
52. Autumn Marathon (1979)   (1979)
53. Girls (1961)   (1918)
54. Courier (1986)   (1913)
55. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Twentieth Century Begins (1986)   (1661)
56. They fought for their homeland (1975)   (1519)
57. The cold summer of the fifty-third ... (1988)   (1357)
58. Kill the dragon (1989)   (1064)
59. The White Sun of the Desert (1970)   (5109)
60. Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977)   (2483)

Rating of 25 best Russian films as of February 26, 2019 (at least 1000 and no more than 25000 ratings):

1. The Return (2003)   (37k)
2. Burnt by the Sun (1994)   (12k)
3. Brother (1997)   (13k)
4. Island (2006)   (8823)
5. The Fool (2014)   (5172)
6. Siberian Barber (1998)   (9734)
7. Brother 2 (2000)   (8183)
8. Cuckoo (2002)   (6421)
9. 12 (2007)   (12k)
10. Exile (2007)   (5200)
11. Thief (1997)   (4037)
12. Prisoner of the Caucasus (1996)   (3570)
13. Legend No. 17 (2013)   (3492)
14. War (2002)   (2727)
15. Siberia. Monamour (2011)   (1643)
16. What men are talking about (2010)   (3807)
17. Features of national hunting (1995)   (2873)
18. Italian (2005)   (2837)
19. Inadequate People (2011)   (2768)
20. Election Day (2007)   (2122)
21. DMB (2000)   (1356)
22. Brest Fortress (2010)   (6946)
23. East - West (1999)   (4068)
24. Geographer globe drank (2013)   (2934)
25. Voroshilov shooter (1999)   (2803)

The genres of films in IMDb are classified as follows (in brackets after the original names the translation is given):

As of June 2, 2017 ^[2] , the IMDb database contained:

4,317,028 articles on films and television series, including:

• 2 824 115 - separate TV programs
• 372,755 - Feature Films
• 474,352 - short films
• 114,770 - TV shows
• 80,524 - Documentary Films

7 519 366 articles about people, including:

• 1 991 533 - actors
• 1,159,628 - actresses
• 840 858 - producers
• 616 719 - Screenwriters
• 478 881 - directors

According to Alexa.com statistics on December 17, 2018, the Internet Movie Database is at 54th most visited worldwide and 30th in the US ^[4] .

• Category: Online Movie Databases

• Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Website
• History of IMDb
• Frequently Asked Questions about IMDb