Scrape IMDb using Python

IMDb is an online database that contains data about Movies, TV Shows, Streaming Shows, Video Games, Reviews, Ratings, and all other entertainment related data. Being an online database, it provides an API so that we can collect data from IMDb for various data science tasks. So, if you want to learn how to scrape data from IMDb, this article is for you. In this article, I’ll walk you through how to scrape IMDb using Python.

Scrape IMDb using Python

IMDb stands for Internet Movie Database. It is an online database of movies, television, and various other entertainment content. IMDb datasets are very popular among the Data Science community. Being an online database, it provides its API to collect the data. You can install this API in your system using the pip command:

  • pip install imdb

Now let’s see how to scrape IMDb using Python. I will start this task by searching for a movie id randomly to see which movie is associated with the id:

from imdb import IMDb
movie = IMDb().get_movie('012346')
print(movie)
Output:
The Kentuckians

Now let’s have a look at the directors of this movie:

for i in movie["directors"]:
    print(i)
Output:
Charles Maigne

At last, I will use one of the most popular methods of this library which is to have a look at the top 250 movies at IMDb:

movies = IMDb().get_top250_movies()
for i in movies:
    print(i)
Output:
The Shawshank Redemption
The Godfather
The Godfather: Part II
The Dark Knight
12 Angry Men
Schindler's List
...

Also, Read – Python Projects with Source Code.

Summary

So this is how we can collect data from IMDb by using the Python programming language. It is an online database that contains data about Movies, TV Shows, Streaming Shows, Video Games, Reviews, Ratings, and all other entertainment related data. I hope you liked this article on how to scrape IMDb using Python. Feel free to ask your valuable questions in the comments section below.

Aman Kharwal
Aman Kharwal

I'm a writer and data scientist on a mission to educate others about the incredible power of data📈.

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