Data Sources
Where our movie and TV data comes from — and why we never trust a single source.
iRankMovies never relies on a single source. We combine several independent databases — community ratings, professional critic scores, and developer-declared metadata — and let them cross-validate each other. The result is the most complete and bias-resistant movie and TV catalogue we know how to build.
Coverage: Primary metadata — ~99% of catalogue
What we get
- Cast, crew, genres, release dates
- Posters & backdrop images
- Community rating + vote count
- Original language & production countries
Coverage: Quality signal — ~80% of catalogue
What we get
- Weighted average rating (0–10)
- Vote count for Bayesian weighting
- Highest weight in the iRank Score (×3.0)
Coverage: Critic consensus — ~66% of catalogue
What we get
- Tomatometer score from professional critics
- Aggregated across hundreds of publications
Coverage: Curated critics — ~65% of catalogue
What we get
- Metascore from weighted critic reviews
- Smaller but highly curated reviewer pool
Coverage: Ratings aggregator
What we get
- Retrieves IMDb, RT and Metacritic scores in one call
- Used to enrich the catalogue efficiently
Coverage: Editorial classification
What we get
- Editorial genre and metadata cross-checks
- Used to correct automated misclassifications
Our commitment to transparency
We do not accept payment from studios or distributors to influence rankings or similarity scores. All data is collected programmatically from public APIs and editorial sources. Community votes cast on iRankMovies are weighted but cannot single-handedly override algorithmic scores. If you spot an error in a title's classification, use the Contact page to report it.