Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Box Office Mojo / IMDb

This is topic Box Office Mojo / IMDb in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Martin Thuss (Member # 7976) on 10-10-2014, 02:18 PM:

It appears as though IMDb has now fully integrated Box Office Mojo into their web site. Now, browsing to a page like www.boxofficemojo.com/monthly redirects you to www.imdb.com/chart?ref_=mojo, which does not appear to be an overly useful page. I can't seem to find the data I need (in this case, box office revenues by month for the past few years) on the IMDb site (unless I have to sign up for IMDb Pro, which isn't an overly attractive option).

Assuming this doesn't get "fixed", can anyone recommend alternative sites where I can get the information I need? Please keep in mind that I do not have access to Rentrak (not open yet, doing research on seasonality of ticket sales for our business plan).

Posted by Alexandre Hurtubise (Member # 7287) on 10-10-2014, 02:26 PM:

It looks like boxofficemojo has been experiencing troubles since early morning today. In the morning, the only thing on their website was a message saying they were working on putting the site back online.

My guess is that is taking longer than they thought and they are redirecting users where they can get the info for now...

Posted by Martin Thuss (Member # 7976) on 10-10-2014, 03:58 PM:

Okay, phew. I thought maybe it was an intentional/permanent change related to the acquisition (from way back in 2008, apparently). Hopefully they will have the problem fixed in good time; that site has some incredibly useful breakdowns.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-10-2014, 04:28 PM:

As with anything else on the Internet, if you see something that you think you might want in the future, grab it today and archive it yourself.

You never know when any particular website will disappear, and data that's not under your control will become unavailable without notice.

That's my beef with "cloud storage", too. If it lives on my own computers I can view it, archive it and delete it as I see fit. If it's somewhere else, you never know who else has access to it and when your access to it might go away. (Encryption helps with the first part of that, but not the second.)

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 10-10-2014, 04:40 PM:

I hope this is just a temporary redirect. BOM has a lot of good information which I just every week. I would hate to see that disappear. IMDb is good for other types of information, but they don't handle grosses and charts as well as BOM.

Posted by Martin Thuss (Member # 7976) on 10-10-2014, 04:42 PM:

I'm with you there, Frank. I don't store anything in "the cloud" (that name is a pet peeve of mine; when did it stop being "the Internet"?!?). I have external hard drives and a fireproof safe for that. [Smile]

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 10-10-2014, 04:49 PM:

If that fireproof safe isn't specifically rated for data storage, it's worse than useless for keeping digital storage devices in.

Regular fire safes work by releasing a steam or vapour that keeps the contents below the temperature where paper will ignite, but the heat and the steam will destroy a hard drive, flash drive, tape, what-have-you.

You also need to be sure that you open that safe on a regular basis, even if you're just using it to store papers. Otherwise moisture (and mold) will build up in it.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-11-2014, 02:05 AM:

You can also encrypt your information and store it in the cloud. At least it's safe for local fires then. [Wink]

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 10-11-2014, 09:50 PM:

And it's back