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The internet is a popular place for movie fans. It’s a place where you can read the latest reviews, watch trailers of upcoming films and argue plotlines with other film buffs. Big movie studios are vastly aware of how important the internet is to marketing their new films, and as a result they spend a lot of money developing interactive websites to help promote new releases.
Today we would like to showcase 40 movie related websites: 20 movie information websites and blogs and 20 official websites from popular movies over the last 10 years. Both sides of this movie website coin are charged with inspiring examples that are sure to please.
20 Movie Blogs, Fan Sites & Award Websites
1. The Internet Movie Database
The largest movie website on the internet was founded in 1990 by self-confessed movie geek Colin Needham. Even though IMDB was sold to Amazon in 1998, Colin is still the Chief Executive of IMDb. More surprisingly, he still runs the company from his home. The site has gone through dozens of design changes over the last 21 years.
Launched in 1999, Rotten Tomatoes is a movie review aggregator that works out a rating for each movie by collecting scores from movie critics. The ‘TOMATOMETER’ tells you the percentage of critics that gave a film a positive review. Films with low scores are given green/rotten tomatoes whilst popular films are displayed using red/fresh tomatoes. The website also displays an average rating from Rotten Tomatoes’ users for each film.
3. Metacritic
MetaCritic works in a similar way to Rotten Tomatoes by aggregating scores from a number of different sources. Unlike Rotten Tomatoes, MetaCritic also covers games, TV and music. Each film is given a rating out of 100. Just like Rotten Tomatoes, a user rating is also displayed.
A link to each review that was used to calculate the score of a fim, album or game is listed underneath the score. It’s worth noting that some reviewers, that are considered more important, are given more weight when scores are calculated.
4. ComingSoon
A colourful website that links to the latest trailers of upcoming movies. The site also publishes production stills, DVD reviews and the latest movie related news. They haven’t integrated their great design into their popular discussion forums, which is strange as it’s prominently linked from the main navigation menu.
Arguably the best website on the web for finding mistakes from popular films. Visitors can search for mistakes from their favourite movies or browse through popular mistakes or films with the most errors. Many mistakes also have images attached to show exactly what went wrong.
A great website that focuses on films that were based on true stories. Each film is compared to what actually happened in real life and pictures of each major actor in the film is shown next to their real life counterparts. It’s a great way of knowing more about the true events that inspired your favourite films.
Google Adsense and Amazon advertisements are discretely integrated throughout the site and related videos for each movies are also linked to each film.
7. The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences (Oscars)
The official Oscars page has an elegant design that showcases upcoming events and lists information about the academny and all past Oscar ceremonies.
The respected Cannes film festival has a website design that is not a million miles away from it’s North American counterpart, sharing the same colour scheme and basic website structure.
9. The Razzies
The Razzies is for those who want to reward the worst the movie industry has to offer. Their website breaks most modern conventions for developing a website with every link and image on the home page linking to either their forum, an advertisement or an article from another news website. What else should we expect from The Razzies?
10. AllMoviePhoto
One of the largest collections of movie photographs on the web. The site features images from old and upcoming films. Visitors can search by film or by actor.
11. Horror Movies
A popular Canadian horror movie community that features reviews, news, discussion forums and a large archive of horror films. The site uses a dark colour scheme that fits it’s genre well.
12. Bad Biology
A dated looking website that highlights biology and science related mistakes from popular films. Don’t let the poor navigation and design put you off as there are a lot of interesting facts to be found on the site. Plus it’s refreshing to browse a movie related website that doesn’t have advertisements everywhere.
13. Empire
The UK’s most popular film magazine has a fantastic design that makes navigating the site a breeze. Empire features news, reviews, videos, images, interviews, forums and more.
Film School Rejects is a great movie blog that features news, reviews and interviews about Hollywood and upcoming films.
15. Fast Rewind
If you grew up in the 80s, you’ll love the 80s Fast Rewind. There are listings for close to 600 films released in the 80s. Each film has a review, details of the music used in the film, triva, bloopers, filming locations and a look behind the scenes.
16. Screen Rant
What started off as a place for owner Vic Holtreman to rant about dumb things that happened in films has grown to be a great resource for the latest movie news and reviews. The site shares a similar design to its sister website Game Rant.
17. Kids In Mind
Kids In Mind provides objective information about the content of films so that parents can decide themselves whether a film is suitable for their children or not. A rating between 1 and 10 is given for sex and nudity, violence and gore and profanity; and descriptions of each scene in the film that the parents might have concerns about are provided in detail.
When browsing the film archives you can quickly see the ratings of a film at a glance. Alternatively, you can read the complete analysis if you need more information.
18. Hulu Movies
Launched in 2007 as a joint venture between companies such as NBC, Fox, Viacom and Disney; Hulu is an online video service that lets you watch movies in full. It also shows clips, trailers and documentaries.
19. The Quentin Tarantino Archives
The unofficial Quentin Tarantino blog that has official status was launched back in 1999. It remains the best place on the web to find out about the latest Tarantino films in progress and is lucky enough to count the man himself as a fan.
20. Roger Ebert
You may not always agree with his reviews but there’s no disputing the experience of film critic Rogert Ebert; the first film critic to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. His personal website features his latest reviews and commentaries.
20 Movie Websites
The vast majority of movie studios are using flash to design their websites these days. This allows them to integrate videos of the films trailer into the content and make the website more interactive. Many of these websites showcase a trailer on the home page and encourage the visitor to ‘Enter The Site’. This area usually features more information about the film, cast and crew and details of how visitors can see the film (cinema, Blu-Ray etc).
21. Avatar
A colourful website that lets you learn about the Avatar movie in a number of ways. Through the small navigation menu at the top left hand side of the page you can view images, videos and download screensavers and background images for your computer. There is very little information on the website itself, with the vast majority of links on the page opening up external websites that are dedicated to specific areas of promoting the film.
22. Iron Man 2
The Iron Man 2 website has a beautiful interactive futuristic design. Images, videos and clips can all be shown via the navigation menus. The visitor can switch between the Iron Man and War Machine suits to find out more about them.
A family friendly design that has lots of games and other activities for kids to play. You can find out more about each dragon in the film too.
24. Saw
Most websites are designed to promote just one film, however the Saw website promotes all 7 Saw films. When you click on a specific film on the right hand side of the page, a sub menu appears in the centre of the page that allows you to find out more about the film, view DVD features, trailers and more.
25. Tron
One of the best designed movie websites online today. Packed full of features, games and information and very easy to navigate. Daft Punk music from the film is played whilst you use the site also for that extra bit of immersion into the world of the film.
26. Donnie Darko
This was one of the first films to use a website to further the plot of a film. Known for it’s complicated plot, the website acts as something of a companion to the story giving you more hints as to what happened in the movie. Some consider it a stroke of genius whilst others find the website even more frustrating than the film. You decide for yourself!
27. Ice Age 3 – Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
A fun website that kids are sure to love. It’s easy to navigate and has lots of interactive material such as videos, images and downloads.
28. District 9
When a visitor views the District 9 website they have to choose whether they are human or an alien. You are then shown a map of Johannesburg. If you click on a restricted area you are warned about unauthorised access and you are then redirected to the Sony page which promotes the film. A great website that’s a good example of how you can make a movie website fun and interactive and still promote the film effectively.
29. Simpsons Movie
An interactive website that allows the visitor to browse around Springfield to find out more about the characters. It has lots of fun games and you can also create your own Simpsons avatar.
30. Transformers – Dark Of The Moon
The home page features links to buy the latest Transformers DVD. The main site plays footage from the film in the background and has a small nav menu that lets you view trailers, images and downloads.
31. Star Trek
As you would expect from a Star Trek website, the website for the latest Star Trek film has a futuristic design. Images, videos and downloads can all be viewed via the great looking nav at the left hand side of the page. You can also see 360 degree panoramic views of the Star Trek set.
32. Predators
A great website that Predator fans are sure to love. When you use the site your regular cursor is replaced by the infamous 3 beam laser sighting that the Predator uses for targeting. As usual, visitors can view trailers and images and download background images for their computer. There’s also a fun Facebook game.
An elegant website design that displays a photo gallery of all the actors and contributors to the film. Clicking on a person allows you to view more information about them. Annoyingly, when you click to enter the main site from the entry page, it loads it up in a brand new browser window.
Another colourful website from Disney that is full of entertaining games, information, images, downloads and more. Go ahead and fall down the rabbit hole…if you dare.
35. The Hurt Locker
A unique page that allows users to navigate the site using the bombs on the home page image or via the navigation menu at the top of the site.
Different areas of the site are transitioned beautifully with fire effects as you move around the site. It’s packed full of information, videos, images, games and more.
A cool looking website that lets you find out more about the various characters from Tarantino’s re-imagining of the film Inglourious Basterds.
38. Shrek
Everyones favourite Ogre has a quick loading website that includes games, downloads, news and more. Information about all 4 Shrek films can be found here.
39. The Expendables
The Expendables website shows all of the stars of the film in a large image that moves from side to side. The navigation menu has been integrated into this image. All you have to do is click on the skulls to find out more.
40. Inception
One of the biggest films of last year has a stylish design that is easy to use. Most of the interactive features such as the minute mazes and Inception Dream are hosted on external websites though.
Do you know of a great movie website that wasn’t included here in our list? If so, feel free to share it with other Noupe readers in the comment area :)
(rb)