What are STARmeter & MOVIEmeter?

STARmeterTM and MOVIEmeterTM are rankings of every person and title in IMDb. Available only on IMDbPro, our website designed for people who work in the entertainment industry, STARmeterTM and MOVIEmeterTM provide industry professionals with insights into the popularity of film and television productions as well as the people who make them. To learn more about our rankings, sign-up for an IMDbPro two week free trial. To start your free trial, click here.

What do the rankings mean?

Plain and simple, they represent what people are interested in, based not on small statistical samplings, but on the actual behavior of millions of IMDb users. Unlike the AFI 100TM or Academy AwardsTM, high rankings on STARmeterTM and MOVIEmeterTM do not necessarily mean that something is "good." They do mean that there is a high level of public awareness and/or interest in the title or person.

How are these ratings calculated?

IMDbPro uses proprietary algorithms that take into account several measures of popularity for people and titles. The primary measure is who and what people are looking at on the public IMDb.com website.

The rankings are updated on a weekly basis.

Are STARmeterTM and MOVIEmeterTM based on polls?

Sort of. Users vote through their actions, every time someone visits an IMDb web page about one of the over 1 million titles and over 3 million people in the database, we record that "pageview". It is the sum total of these pageviews that form the foundation of the STARmeterTM and MOVIEmeterTM rankings.

Could someone "rig" the ratings by visiting an IMDb page repeatedly?

No. IMDb.com has over 57 million visitors each month. The STARmeterTM and MOVIEmeterTM rankings are based on a cumulative total of more than 3 billion pageviews per month. Furthermore, we have designed the ranking algorithm so that the actions of one user (or small group of users) has a limited impact, and the algorithm is periodically improved to detect and neutralize any attempts to 'stuff the ballot'.

How do STARmeterTM and MOVIEmeterTM compare with other rankings?

Some ranking systems are based on the opinion of one "expert" or a selected group of "experts". Others use statistical samplings of a few hundred or a few thousand people, offering them a controlled set of choices, and ranking only within that set.

We, on the other hand, offer a nearly unlimited set of choices with over 1 million titles and over 3 million people to choose from, and base our rankings on the behavior of a sampling group of over 57 million monthly visitors in a real-world environment.

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