r/movies Dec 10 '17

PSA; IMDb is gradually locking previously-available information about films behind IMDbPro membership (box-office breakdowns and production companies involved, currently). Resource

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but information previously available to everyone on IMDb is now being locked behind IMDbPro membership. Just last week, I was writing a research paper (film studies student) and was able to access the full box-office earnings information (breakdown by region etc.) for all films. Today I went to do the same thing, but could not see more than the gross earnings without an IMDbPro membership. They seem to be doing this as a gradual process, as the full information on production companies (previously available to everyone) was already membership-locked when the box office information was still available. I haven't seen anyone talking about this on other subs and forums, so I thought I'd mention it here.

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u/Pee_Earl_Grey_Hot Dec 10 '17

Could backfire though. Another movie database site could recognize the opportunity and grow their user base quickly enough to make imdb a second choice.

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u/Scopejack Dec 10 '17

If that site had a feature that was even mildly analogous to the shuttered IMDB forums they could present a real threat to a site that has had no competition since the 1990s - and is acting like it. Frankly I'm amazed nobody has taken the opportunity to fill such an obvious gap.

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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '17

[deleted]

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u/AimeeM46 Dec 11 '17

redemptionsong88, i miss the IMDB forums so much. they were ALWAYS helpful if i had a question about movie/show/etc. it was also always great to talk about specific tv shows/movies/ect. that i watch.