by Mark Dykeman

Created on: August 11, 2007

Top 5 Indispensible Movie-Related Websites

Many of us love just about everything about the movies! We love to watch them, we like to follow the lives and careers of actors and actresses, and we like to know what's coming up in future as well as what might be good right now. Most of all, we don't want to have to work hard to get this information that's so important to us.

Here's an overview of five top movie websites, each offering different types of information, functions, and entertainment that should appease even the most discriminating movie lover.

(1) Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) - This site is one of the sites I use almost as frequently as Google, CNN and Facebook. This is probably the world's single most comprehensive information source about movies, TV, actors, actresses, and other creative folks. With a look at movies past, present, and future, with lots of cool features, you're really cheating yourself if you don't use this site!

(2) The Numbers (www.the-numbers.com) - This is a super resource for those of us who like financial data surrounding movies (e.g. how much money has this movie made to date and how does it compare to other movies.) The Records section is also fun to browse through.

(3) Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com) - This site is widely known for its rating system (the percentage of "freshness" or "rottenness" of the movie). The site contains commentary from various film critics and plenty of other movie-related content. Its "Vine" pages are a social networking application to allow people to discuss movies.

(4) The Hollywood Stock Exchange (www.hsx.com) - This is an online game which allows you to hold a portfolio of movies, movie stars, "funds" of similar movies, and derivatives. You canu bet on the potential box office for many movies. HSX.com also allows players to try to pick who the next American Idol will be and who will win other popular reality shows. It's like playing the stock market!

(5) Your local theater(s) website: Almost every movie theater has a website that you can check to see what's upcoming. Sometimes they'll also have contests, promotions, etc. If your local theater is part of a chain, you can use it to locate other theaters if you are travelling. Some of these sites also allow you to purchase your tickets ahead of time.

So what are you waiting for? Go check these out!

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