I came across a media management tool that pulls movie information from IMDB’s database. This got me wondering about how developers can access this kind of data programmatically.
Does IMDB offer any official API services that allow applications to retrieve movie details, ratings, cast information, and other metadata? I’m also curious if there are any reliable third-party services or unofficial APIs that provide similar functionality for accessing IMDB data.
I’m looking to build a small project that needs access to movie information and want to understand what options are available for getting this data in a structured format.
yup, imdb shut down their public api a while back. for movie stuff, check out omdb or tmdb – both are free and work great. omdb’s basically the closest to what imdb used to offer.
IMDB killed their official API years ago - super frustrating for developers. I’ve worked with movie data on several projects and TMDB (The Movie Database) is hands down your best option. It’s free, well-documented, and has everything you need: cast, crew, ratings, poster images. Rate limits are pretty reasonable too. OMDb is another choice with a simpler interface, but you’ll need an API key for heavy usage. Both beat trying to scrape IMDB directly, which breaks their terms anyway. TMDB usually has fresher data and way better international coverage from what I’ve seen.