Lights.... Camera.... Action! Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on movies, DVDs and rentals. Nobody wants to miss out on the next zombie movie or a huge budget summer blockbuster. We eat up movies almost as fast as the popcorn.
In the 1930s, when America was in the depths of an economic crisis known as the Great Depression, cinema was one of the few sources of entertainment. Movies increased the morale of an almost broken nation. It gave people hope and an hour or two to escape to the silver screen. Today, cinema is still hugely popular, with people accessing and renting movies online. iTunes, for example, allows people to download movies for a small charge from their iTunes store.
The Internet has a lot more to offer to movie fans than just ordering tickets, which you can do at sites like Fandango, MovieTickets and Moviefone. It's also an invaluable resource tool when you're shopping for movies. The Web has a huge bank of knowledge where you can find just about anything you could possibly want to know about your favorite films and actors, industry news and Hollywood gossip. There are sites that cater to just about every genre of film you can think of, but if you just want to read more about the last movie you saw, there's no better place to start than the Internet Movie Database. Though there have been some complaints that it became somewhat commercialized after Amazon.com bought the site, IMDB might just be the best online resource for movies. (Note: Amazon.com does use IMDB as a commercial wing to try to get users to buy movies from them.) From obscure directors to classic blockbusters, IMDB has everything you're looking for. IMDB is probably one of the most complete entertainment sites you'll find on the Web.
Other movie sites also provide a good amount of information, mixed with the flash, and sometimes the gaudiness, of Hollywood. Movies.com is a decent site, with update news, but somewhat lacking on database side. Ifilm.com also has a lot of movie information, but perhaps the most interesting aspect is their Viral Video section, which has uploads of a lot of obscure television segments, old commercials and cartoons and weird home videos.
