Box Office Mojo

"Brandon Gray" redirects here. For the domain name registry operator, see Brandon Gray Internet Services.
Box Office Mojo

Box Office Mojo homepage
Web address boxofficemojo.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
 Film
Registration Not compulsory
Available in English
Owner Amazon.com
Created by Brandon Gray
Launched 1999
Alexa rank
 negative increase 2,260 (October 2014)[1]
Current status Active

Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way, founded in 1999. In 2008 Box Office Mojo was bought by the Internet Movie Database, owned by Amazon. The website is widely used within the movie industry as a source of data. From 2002-2011 Box Office Mojo had forums popular with movie fans. On October 10, 2014, the website's URL was redirected to Amazon's IMDb.com website for one day,[2] but the website returned the following day without explanation.[3]

History

Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and grew the site to nearly two million readers.[4] In July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through its subsidiary, the Internet Movie Database.[5][6]

From 2002-2011 Box Office Mojo had forums, which were a popular place for box office "fanatics", and the site at one time was home to several popular movie games and quizzes/tests (e.g., Fantasy Box Office (created in 2006) and Create a Year of Movies), until these were summarily canceled for undisclosed reasons. Box Office Mojo had forums with more than 16,500 registered users. On November 2, 2011 the forums were officially closed along with any user accounts, and users were invited to join IMDB's message boards, even though not all the same features were available there.[7] Tracking is still done very closely to the day by day, actual tabulation of distributors, making it possible to see the general trend of a film's "earnings trajectory".

Box Office Mojo International

The international section covers the weekly box office of 50 territories and includes historical box office information from three more, as well as provides information for box office results for individual movies from up to 107 territories. The site also creates an overall weekend chart, combining all box office returns from around the world, excluding the United States and Canada. The overall weekend chart currently tracks the Top 40 films as well as approximately fifty additional films with no ranking.

Box Office Mojo International also reports the release schedule of upcoming movies for Australia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Norway, Russia and the CIS, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. The site additionally has yearly and all time features for its various territories. Box Office Mojo was as of June 2009 reporting limited data from overseas and is "work(ing) on improvements". Many of its international charts have not been updated since November 2014 (as of April 2015).

Redirection to IMDb, October 2014

On October 10, 2014, all traffic to Box Office Mojo was redirected to IMDb's box office page,[8][9] before returning the following day.[10]

Queries about the closure to IMDB and Amazon representatives were met with no response. Brandon Gray, who founded the website but left several years ago after its sale to Amazon, nor current operator Ray Subers would respond either.[11] On Ray Subers' Twitter[12] account, he revealed the websites return, but also stated he would not answer any questions pertaining to closure.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Boxofficemojo.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  2. ↑ McNary, Dave (October 10, 2014). "Box Office Mojo Site Disappears Into IMDb". Variety. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
  3. ↑ Couch, Aaron (October 11, 2014). "Box Office Mojo Returns After Disappearing Friday". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2014-10-12.
  4. ↑ "About Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  5. ↑ Engleman, Eric (2008-12-17). "Amazon's IMDb movie trivia site acquires rival Box Office Mojo". TechFlash. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  6. ↑ Fritz, Ben (2008-12-15). "IMDB links up with Box Office Mojo". Variety. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  7. ↑ "Forums". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  8. ↑ http://www.thewrap.com/box-office-mojo-absorbed-into-imdb-com/
  9. ↑ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-mojo-fate-uncertain-739999
  10. ↑ Dave McNary (October 11, 2014). "Box Office Mojo Returns After One-Day Absence". Variety. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  11. ↑ Michael Cieply (October 10, 2014). "With a Click, the Data Site Box Office Mojo Disappears". The New York Times. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  12. ↑ https://twitter.com/raysubers
  13. ↑ Jeff Labrecque (October 13, 2014). "Box Office Mojo is back online, and its editor isn't taking questions". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 13, 2014.

External links