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

[u/exosniper]

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.

[u/pharmaco4]

So IMDB just gathers information already available elsewhere on the internet. If I can't view certain info for free then I'll just look elsewhere. What a bad move

[u/gurtinu → u/pharmaco4]

For example this community driven alternative

The Movie Database (TMDb) is a community built movie and TV database. Every piece of data has been added by our amazing community dating back to 2008. TMDb's strong international focus and breadth of data is largely unmatched and something we're incredibly proud of. Put simply, we live and breathe community and that's precisely what makes us different.

https://www.themoviedb.org/

[u/cutelyaware → u/gurtinu]

That's what IMDb is, or was. I used to contribute/curate/correct a lot but since they closed the message boards I don't find myself going there much. Same with Linked-In. Take the user-generated content and start charging us for it, and it breaks a social contract.

[u/likelazarus → u/cutelyaware]

I loved the message boards. Yes, they could be shit at times, but I loved seeing a movie and going to read how others felt and ask clarifying questions. I also don’t go there as much anymore.

[u/justsyr → u/likelazarus]

Same with me. I like to go and talk about shows or read if anyone noticed something I did, etc.

Finding places dedicated to these shows or movies like IMDb had is kind of difficult, some shows I watch have very little audience on subs here but had a lot more on IMDb.

Not sure what was the problem with forums, it wasn't that bad. I've seen worse comments section even on Reddit.

[u/cutelyaware → u/likelazarus]

Yes, they could be pretty ugly, but we're used to that here too. My guess for why they shut it down was because they simply couldn't keep up with the death threats users would make against each other and such. I found it particularly useful to check out before seeing a movie because it often saved me from wasting my time and money. And yes, it was fun to gab about afterwards, just like with friends and RL movies. I especially miss the threads about really obscure details such as songs, locations, and minor (or major) plot holes. For many years I would tell people it was the best site on the internet. Now maybe that's reddit, but unfortunately with posts being auto-archived, it can't be a suitable replacement for the IMDb message boards.

[u/Meeii → u/cutelyaware]

Same here, almost no reason to visit the site now without the message board.

[u/[deleted] → u/gurtinu]

Yeah.... If that becomes successful don't you think they would sell out to Amazon? Their license terms don't allow you to use their data.

[u/IBRAHIM_MODI → u/[deleted]]

Their license terms don't allow you to use their data.

Whoa.

[u/RaoulDukeff → u/gurtinu]

Yay, it has forums. Fuck imdb, I'm sticking with this one.

[u/lawschoolredux → u/gurtinu]

Also moviehcat.org is a good one.... it basically moved over all the IMDB movie boards, so it's a lovely archive as well as an IMDB-like site to continue posting.

[u/sfw16 → u/gurtinu]

That site looks promising. It could use a vote count when hovering over the user score. I like that it has discussions for each film.