The Movie Database

What The Movie Database does

The Movie Database (TMDB) is a community-driven entertainment metadata platform that catalogs millions of movies, TV shows, and people through user contributions. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Jose, California, TMDB is owned and operated by Xperi Inc. through its subsidiary TiVo Platform Technologies LLC. The platform serves individual entertainment enthusiasts free of charge — registered users maintain personal watchlists, log what they have watched, filter by their streaming subscriptions, and edit the underlying records, with a public leaderboard showing tens of thousands of edits per top contributor and the leading contributor alone accounting for over 4.7 million edits.

Name

The Movie Database

Legal name

TiVo Platform Technologies LLC

Website

https://themoviedb.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Movie Database is a user-contributed entertainment metadata platform covering millions of movies, TV shows, and people, offering free consumer access alongside a commercial API tier, serving enthusiasts, developers, and third-party media applications worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

San Jose

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Free Personal Use: TMDB is free for personal, non-commercial use. Users can join the community, maintain watchlists, rate content, and contribute to the database at no cost.
2. Commercial API Licensing: Commercial use of TMDB APIs and content requires a separate written agreement with TMDB. This includes applications that generate revenue, charge users, use the content for AI/ML training, or integrate TMDB into commercial products. Fees may apply.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

TMDB provides a community-driven, user-contributed database of movies, TV shows, and people, accessible for free via its website for personal use. It also offers a public API that delivers this metadata to developers and third-party applications, with commercial use requiring a separate written licensing agreement. Complementary features include personal watchlists, custom lists, and integration with JustWatch for streaming availability across major services.

Product overview

The Movie Database (TMDB) is a community-driven entertainment database offering a unified platform for movies, TV shows, and people information. The core product is the TMDB Database, which stores millions of entries with detailed metadata including cast, crew, images, keywords, translations in 47 languages, and social links. The TMDB API provides programmatic access to this data for non-commercial applications, with commercial use requiring a separate agreement. User engagement features include personalized accounts with watchlists and custom lists, and the newly launched Vibes rating system that replaced star ratings to include Moods (emotional reactions across 7 categories) and Tones (tone keywords) for enhanced community feedback.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• TMDB Database A user-contributed database containing millions of movies, TV shows, and people records with details including cast, crew, images, keywords, alternative titles, release dates, translations across 47 languages, awards, and social media links, freely accessible for personal use.
• TMDB API Public application programming interface providing access to TMDB's database for non-commercial use, with endpoints for movies, TV shows, people, keywords, translations, and more. Commercial use, including charging users, integration into commercial products, or use for AI/ML training, requires a separate written commercial agreement.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• JustWatchcoreTechnology or IntegrationTMDB has integration with JustWatch, which provides streaming and purchase options localized to a given country. Users can access JustWatch options by clicking 'Watch Now' below any movie or TV show poster to see where content is available to stream or purchase.
• Xperi Inc.coreOthersTMDB is owned and operated by Xperi Inc. and its subsidiaries. Xperi Inc. is a technology company that owns various entertainment and media technology brands including TiVo. TMDB privacy policy states that information may be shared with affiliates of Xperi Inc.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Peers

• JustWatch:

Direct peers

• IMDb: IMDb (owned by Amazon) is the largest user-contributed entertainment database for movies, TV, and celebrities with ratings, reviews, and trailers. It is TMDB's most direct competitor, serving the same consumer use case of discovery and tracking while also offering commercial data licensing through IMDbPro.
• Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten Tomatoes (Fandango/NBCUniversal) aggregates movie and TV information with critic and audience scores. It overlaps TMDB's consumer-facing discovery and rating mission and represents a competing entertainment metadata destination with strong studio relationships.
• TheTVDB: TheTVDB is a community-driven television and film database with a public API widely used by media center applications. It directly competes with TMDB in the API-driven entertainment metadata space, especially for TV episode-level data and Kodi/Plex-style integrations.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/themoviedb
• Facebookfacebook.com/themoviedb

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Movie Database