TServo2049

Perhaps they have code in place that when the entire server goes down, it automatically redirects to IMDB? It did go down at just about the time when the Thursday numbers would have been plugged in yesterday (around noon Pacific time)...maybe executing the update on the already fucked-up server caused it to COMPLETELY go down? I seem to recall that for about a minute around that time, the site did load - then it loaded the maintenance message again - then it loaded IMDB. IMDB, you should have explained instead of being silent. (The anecdote about an IMDB rep hanging up the phone when asked about BOM is even more bizarre knowing they AREN'T killing it. If you're not engaging in a cover-up, don't make it look like you're engaging in a cover-up.) Public relations. You're doing it wrong.

I think it's basically in the state it was in when it went down yesterday around noon PST - with only Thursday numbers from some of the studios in.

That's a blank time stamp reference (the "beginning" of Unix time is 01/01/1970 00:00:00 UTC, Pacific time is UTC -8 hours, so that time stamp in Pacific is 12/31/1969 04:00 PM)

This isn't something to joke about, I still think it's worth it to back up all the data we can in case future bozos at Amazon/IMDb someday DO decide to do what everyone has suspected/accused them of trying to do this time. This could be a PR nightmare for them - people will probably forever wonder if they actually INTENDED to absorb BOM and put it behind a paywall, and walked it back because of the outcry of the possibility of it happening. People may look at them with an element of suspicion and distrust from now on..."because you never know"

Well, I never remember a redirect to IMDB being put in before. If you don't actually intend to shut down the site and merge it into the parent site, don't do something that makes it looks like that's EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE FUCKING DOING.

It is showing Thursday numbers though - those weren't up before it went down. Damn you IMDB, if you had just come out and explained (and hadn't put in a fucking redirect to IMDB) none of this would have happened. As I said before, this is like the GetSatisfaction kerfuffle all over again.

MOJO WILL LIVE

OK - guess it's another case where BOM's number only went up to the last weekend where it was on their source's charts. So HTTYD2 in China and Up in Japan really are sort of equivalent.

I will say, they couldn't have picked a better time to disappear than when everyone could name-drop the #1 movie in America in reference to it.

They said the holiday predictions would be up in three weeks, at a time when they were still active on Twitter. As I said, if they are going away, what if this decision was so sudden that they didn't even know about it until Thursday?

So have I. It's weird how sometimes an interest in dependent on one thing, and when you lose that one thing you lose the interest. I do feel like something has to fill the void. On the Interwebs, when something gets shut down, something always replaces it. Hell, thanks to Internet Archive (and the data available on other sites) we have enough data to build our own historical database if we so choose.

It's kind of amusing how everyone is prematurely excoriating them for something they haven't actually said they'll do yet. (Yes, I know, part of me says "Why ELSE would they do this" but can't we at least wait until they come out and say so before raging?)

WB is one of the most schizo marketing departments ever. Sometimes they sell a movie better than the actual movie, sometimes they sell a movie WORSE than the actual movie (I'm looking at you, original Edge of Tomorrow campaign...)

I don't think you can pin down a "bad guy" in the RDJ/Marvel thing. Is he greedy for wanting too much, or is Marvel stingy for not wanting to pay him that much even when they know that RDJ as Iron Man will likely net them more than enough revenue to balance it out? I can see both sides - if increased BO take from the Stark Effect isn't greater than the payout required to get him, it's kind of a wash. (But if it is...Kevin...you will have opened the pocketbooks of MILLIONS of potential moviegoers.) And of course, if RDJ really just doesn't want to do it, even a Depp-sized paycheck won't bring him on. (And does anyone really want to see a Pirates 4-style "only in it for the money" sleepwalk performance?)

OK, while I can't speak to anything regarding BOM since we have still learned nothing, I do know that Facebook going pay is a completely false rumor/hoax that has been floating around for literally years. I remember some time in 2011 or 2012 an instance of the rumor really took off and FB had to come out and specifically say "This is not really happening, it's a hoax."

Lego movies can literally be about anything anyway - it doesn't HAVE to continue to follow the journey of Emmet. Maybe they are having trouble thinking up another story with Emmet and the gang, and Batman was the breakout character anyway... Yes, I know it's a cash grab because Batman is big. But that doesn't mean they won't have fun with it.

Reminds me - it's a testament to how big Affleck-as-Batman is, that media refer to him by the shorthand "Batman" 18 months before he actually appears on screen as Batman.

I don't know, I don't use them very often. The big thing I used was being able to edit credits for companies through the company's page, rather than having to edit the company credits for each individual title. Company filmographies are much better laid out (the company filmography pages on free IMDB are still a legacy of the original 1990s design, no grouping of TV episodes by series since it predates TV episode coverage) Oh, it also gives more access to info about films that are in development. I honestly am not sure - it is mostly intended for industry people, stuff like being able to post your own resumes and demo reels, and other features like that?

I've been on IMDBPro since 2008, since I've been a top 250 contributor for the last 7 years (and I hope to make the list this year - I haven't done much contributing, but I'll step it up; and I can even afford the $150 if I don't make it - but I'm sure as heck gonna try) So if I'm needed to steal any numbers, I'll do it.

The past 24 hours of baseless speculation would have been averted if they had just come out and immediately said "This is what we're doing, this is why we're doing it, reach out to us for comments and we will promptly answer any questions you have." No stealth redirect to IMDB, no cryptic message on BOM homepage for the previous 12 hours; just an up-to-date, honest and comprehensible message on the BOM page, duplicated on Facebook and Twitter, with prompt updates at such time as there is a new development. You know, like reasonable, civilized human beings. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised to find out that IMDb was currently being run entirely by HAL 9000. Or Nomad from Star Trek. Or Skynet. It feels like this whole thing is being run by some kind of machine.

I saw this on the Wrap comments from someone who apparently did check the redirect headers (this was 11hrs ago): "It says 'moved temporarily', so we can still hope, it'll be back soon. Status: HTTP/1.1 302 Moved temporarily" Can anybody with more knowledge of HTTP explain what this is and whether it's a good sign?

Crap, I just was too. False alarm guys. That was weird.

White page actually may be a good sign! That often seemed to be a sign that BOM was in the middle of a flash-rebuild or something...I'd see it whenever they were in the process of plugging new numbers in.

It's a sad truth, but free stuff on the Internet is a privilege, not a right. We conditioned ourselves to think otherwise because the idealistic geeks got in before the big businesses did, but there's nothing we can do. If they do make it pay, the only thing that would change their mind would be XBox One level backlash that would actually risk serious damage to their public image and their bottom line. And I can't see that happening for a freaking box office statistics site. I just can't. I honestly think that if the BO community is displeased, they should make their own site which is everything they want it to be. Even if BOM does actually go pay, numerical BO data is still public domain and just one user with a premium account could provide it all to an open source site. Especially since the people who aren't paying for it weren't going to pay for it anyway. And of course ALL of this is based entirely on the speculation, not what's actually going to happen.

And why has nobody brought up the Lego Batman fan-film with Adam West and Mark Hamill?