IMDb
Corporate brand
UnclaimedA global entertainment-information platform combining a crowd-sourced database, ratings, professional industry tools, and streaming discovery.
Last updated August 31, 2026
Overview
IMDb, originally called the Internet Movie Database, is an Amazon-owned entertainment-information service covering films, television series, podcasts, video games, streaming programs, performers, production personnel, companies, and related industry data. Its public website combines title and person records with cast and crew credits, release information, plot descriptions, biographies, trivia, photographs, trailers, user ratings, reviews, rankings, watchlists, and personalized discovery features. IMDb also distributes selected editorial and video programming and provides data products and professional services for people working in entertainment. The service began as a volunteer film-reference project rather than as a conventional media company. Col Needham had maintained a personal film database and became active in the Usenet film community in the late 1980s. In October 1990, he released searchable Unix scripts for lists of actors, actresses, directors, and films on the rec.arts.movies newsgroup. The project expanded through contributions from film enthusiasts around the world and moved to the World Wide Web in 1993 through Cardiff University, initially under the name Cardiff Internet Movie Database. IMDb incorporated in the United Kingdom in 1996. Its business model developed around advertising, licensing, partnerships, and paid professional services. Amazon acquired IMDb in 1998 in a transaction reported at approximately $55 million, making the database an Amazon subsidiary while allowing it to continue operating as a distinct consumer-facing brand. Amazon initially viewed IMDb partly as a promotional and information resource supporting home-video sales, but IMDb subsequently developed into a broad discovery and industry-data platform. Its best-known consumer features include title pages, person filmographies, user-generated ratings and reviews, watchlists, popularity rankings, and the IMDb Top 250 films and television rankings. IMDbPro serves actors, directors, producers, agents, casting professionals, production companies, and other industry users with expanded contact, representation, credits, résumé, ranking, and professional-profile tools. The company has also operated or acquired adjacent services, including Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo, and has launched localized editions and video products. IMDb experimented with streaming beginning in the late 2000s and later launched Freedive in 2019. Freedive was renamed IMDb TV later that year and became Amazon Freevee in 2022. Freevee was subsequently integrated into Amazon Prime Video in December 2024 rather than continuing as an independent destination. IMDb remains principally an information, discovery, advertising, subscription, and data brand within Amazon. Its database is maintained through user submissions, editorial and technical review, automated consistency checks, and company moderation. Because of its scale and influence, the service is widely used by audiences, journalists, researchers, studios, distributors, and entertainment professionals, although its user ratings and crowd-sourced records are not equivalent to formal critical or scholarly datasets.
History
IMDb originated in the personal film-recording hobby of Col Needham, a British film enthusiast and engineer. During the late 1980s he participated in the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies, where users exchanged film facts and lists. A discussion about actresses' eyes led Needham to create an actors list; parallel lists were developed for directors and actresses. These lists gradually merged and expanded to include films, television programs, performers, biographies, trivia, plot material, and other categories. On October 17, 1990, Needham distributed Unix shell scripts that allowed users to search the growing lists. This event is generally treated as the beginning of the IMDb database. By 1992, the project had nearly 10,000 film and television records and a broader volunteer-maintainer structure. Ratings, biographies, plot summaries, and additional film personnel were added, while Alan Jay developed a centralized e-mail query and submission interface. Contributors supplied information internationally, and volunteer section managers reviewed and organized material by category. The database reached the World Wide Web on August 5, 1993, initially using Cardiff Internet Movie Database as its name and operating on servers associated with Cardiff University's computer science department. Rob Hartill created the original web interface. The project used donated bandwidth and a network of mirror sites as its audience grew. A revised e-mail interface in 1994 allowed broader direct submissions, although data continued to pass through category-based management and review. IMDb became a United Kingdom-registered company in 1996, with Needham as its principal owner. Advertising, licensing, and partnerships supported the operation. Amazon acquired the company in April 1998, reportedly paying about $55 million for IMDb and two other businesses. IMDb became an Amazon subsidiary and gained the resources to employ its core staff while continuing to operate under its own name. Amazon initially saw the service as a way to support entertainment promotion and home-video sales, but IMDb's scope broadened considerably as internet video, streaming, online advertising, and professional entertainment services developed. The company introduced paid and professional offerings alongside its free public database. IMDbPro gives industry participants enhanced access to professional pages, representation and contact information, credits, rankings, résumés, photographs, and profile-claiming tools. IMDb also developed résumé subscriptions and expanded the ability of performers and crew members to manage professional information. In 2008, it launched a German-language edition and acquired Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo, strengthening its relationships with filmmakers, distributors, and box-office data users. IMDb's interface and community systems changed repeatedly. It introduced user profiles and contribution badges, modernized title pages, and retained a reference-oriented view for users working with detailed records. In February 2017, it removed its long-running message boards, arguing that they no longer served most visitors and were costly to maintain. The closure was controversial, and third parties preserved portions of the boards in response. IMDb also experimented with video distribution. After an earlier streaming effort in 2008, it launched Freedive in January 2019. Freedive became IMDb TV in June 2019 and Amazon Freevee in 2022. Amazon later closed Freevee as a separate site and incorporated its content into Prime Video at the end of 2024. IMDb itself remains active as Amazon's principal entertainment-information and discovery brand, with a global audience and a database covering millions of titles and people. Its material is assembled from public submissions, professional users, editorial processes, automated checks, and moderation, which gives the service breadth but also means that records can contain errors and disputed information.
- 2024
Freevee is integrated into Prime Video
[1]Freevee ceased operating as an independent site and its content was incorporated into Prime Video.
- 2022
IMDb TV becomes Amazon Freevee
[1]Amazon moved the streaming product to the Freevee brand.
- 2019
Freedive becomes IMDb TV
[1]IMDb's ad-supported streaming service changed its name from Freedive to IMDb TV.
- 2017
Message boards close
[1]IMDb permanently removed its message boards and their live content.
- 2015
Contribution badges introduced
[1]User profiles began displaying badges reflecting contribution activity across categories such as photos, trivia, and biographies.
- 2008
International and data expansion
[1]IMDb introduced IMDb.de and acquired Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo.
- 2006
Résumé Subscription Service launches
[1]Performers and crew members gained a paid way to publish résumés and photographs on professional IMDb pages.
- 1998
Amazon acquisition
[1]Amazon acquired IMDb, making it a private subsidiary while retaining the IMDb brand and service.
- 1996
Internet Movie Database Ltd. is incorporated
[1]The project became a United Kingdom-registered company and developed advertising, licensing, and partnership revenue.
- 1993
IMDb reaches the World Wide Web
[1]The database moved online through Cardiff University under the name Cardiff Internet Movie Database.
Showing the 10 most recent.
Products and positioning
A leading global reference and discovery platform for entertainment information, serving both general audiences and the professional film and television industry.
Consumer entertainment database · 1993
IMDb.com
The core public service provides searchable pages for films, television, podcasts, video games, streaming programs, performers, directors, writers, production personnel, companies, and related subjects. Pages can include credits, release details, images, trailers, plot information, trivia, biographies, ratings, reviews, popularity indicators, and links to viewing or purchasing options.
Professional entertainment service
IMDbPro
IMDbPro is a paid professional platform for actors, crew members, producers, agents, casting professionals, executives, and production companies. It provides expanded industry contact and representation information, professional rankings, résumé and photograph tools, profile claiming, and additional production and credit data.
User-rating ranking
IMDb Top 250
The Top 250 ranks feature films using a weighted methodology based on ratings from registered users considered regular voters. IMDb also publishes television rankings and a Bottom 100 list. The exact weighting criteria are not fully disclosed.
Ad-supported streaming · 2019
IMDb TV / Amazon Freevee
This was IMDb's branded ad-supported streaming initiative, launched as Freedive, renamed IMDb TV, and later rebranded Amazon Freevee. The independent Freevee destination was closed in 2024, with content moved into Prime Video.
Box-office data service
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a box-office reporting and analysis service acquired by IMDb's parent group in 2008 and operated as an associated entertainment-data property.
Film-festival submission service
Withoutabox
Withoutabox was a filmmaker and festival-submission service acquired by IMDb in 2008. Its acquisition reflected IMDb's expansion into professional film-industry workflows.
Marketing campaigns
- 2016IMDb Studio at Sundance
United States · Digital global audience
IMDb launched IMDb Studio at Sundance, a talk-show and interview initiative presented through IMDb and YouTube, connecting the brand with filmmakers, performers, and festival audiences.
Outcome. Established a recurring editorial and video presence around the Sundance Film Festival.
Brand decisions
2024
Integrate Freevee content into Prime VideoStrategyBackground
Amazon consolidated its ad-supported streaming content rather than continuing Freevee as a separate independent destination.
Action taken
Freevee's independent site was closed on December 30, 2024, and its content was merged into Prime Video.
Aftermath
IMDb continued as the entertainment-information brand, while the streaming catalog was managed under Prime Video.
2019
Launch and rename the ad-supported streaming serviceProduct launchBackground
IMDb sought to extend its entertainment-discovery role into free, advertising-supported video after an earlier streaming experiment.
Action taken
Amazon launched Freedive in January 2019 and renamed it IMDb TV in June of the same year.
Aftermath
The service was later rebranded Amazon Freevee in 2022 and ultimately integrated into Prime Video in 2024.
2017
Close the IMDb message boardsStrategyBackground
IMDb said the boards were no longer useful for the majority of its more than 250 million monthly users, while their aging technology, moderation burden, and weak advertising economics made them difficult to justify.
Action taken
The company permanently disabled the message boards and removed their live content from IMDb.
Aftermath
Users criticized the decision and an online petition attracted more than 8,000 signatures. Archive.org and MovieChat.org preserved copies or archives of the material.
Recent events
- 2024
Freevee content is integrated into Prime Video[1]
Other
Amazon closed Freevee as an independent site on December 30, 2024 and moved its content into Amazon Prime Video.
- 2022
IMDb TV becomes Amazon Freevee[1]
Product generation
Amazon rebranded IMDb TV as Amazon Freevee, separating the streaming identity from the IMDb consumer database brand.
- 2019
Freedive launches as IMDb's ad-supported streaming service[1]
Product launch
IMDb launched Freedive, an ad-supported streaming service that was renamed IMDb TV later in the same year.
- 2017
IMDb discontinues its message boards[1]
Other
IMDb permanently closed its message boards, citing limited usefulness, declining advertising economics, technical costs, and harmful user behavior. The decision generated user backlash and an online petition.
- 2008
IMDb launches its first German-language edition[1]
Product launch
IMDb introduced IMDb.de as its first official foreign-language version.
- 2008
IMDb acquires Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo[1]
M&A
The Amazon subsidiary expanded its industry and box-office capabilities through the acquisition of Withoutabox and Box Office Mojo.
- 1998
Amazon acquires IMDb[1]
M&A
Amazon bought IMDb and two related companies in a transaction reported at approximately $55 million, bringing the service into Amazon as a private subsidiary.
- 1993
IMDb moves from Usenet to the World Wide Web[1]
Other
The fan-created database became available through the early World Wide Web after beginning as a searchable Usenet project.
Sources3 sources
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