IMDb Scraper

Apify Actor for scraping IMDb movie and TV show data. Uses CheerioCrawler to parse server-rendered __NEXT_DATA__ for fast, reliable extraction without a browser.

Features

• Scrape IMDb charts: Top 250 Movies, Top 250 TV Shows, Most Popular Movies, Most Popular TV Shows
• Search by genre with results sorted by user rating
• Two modes: quick chart/search data or full detail scraping
• Extracts rich structured data from __NEXT_DATA__ JSON
• Detail mode adds: cast, directors, writers, box office, metacritic score, keywords, production companies, countries, and languages

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
chartTypes	string[]	["top"]	Charts to scrape: top, toptv, moviemeter, tvmeter
searchQueries	string[]	[]	Genre search queries (e.g., action, comedy, horror)
maxListings	integer	250	Max titles per chart or search (0=unlimited)
scrapeDetails	boolean	false	Visit each title page for full details
proxyConfiguration	object	{}	Proxy settings (recommended for large runs)

Example Input

{
    "chartTypes": ["top", "toptv"],
    "maxListings": 50,
    "scrapeDetails": false
}

Genre Search Example

{
    "chartTypes": [],
    "searchQueries": ["action", "comedy", "horror"],
    "maxListings": 25
}

Output

Chart mode (default)

{
    "rank": 1,
    "imdbId": "tt0111161",
    "title": "The Shawshank Redemption",
    "titleType": "Movie",
    "year": 1994,
    "rating": 9.3,
    "votes": 2900000,
    "runtimeSeconds": 8520,
    "runtime": "2h 22m",
    "certificate": "R",
    "genres": ["Drama"],
    "plot": "A banker convicted of uxoricide forms a friendship...",
    "imageUrl": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/...",
    "url": "https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/",
    "chartType": "top",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-17T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Detail mode (scrapeDetails: true)

Adds these fields to each title:

{
    "directors": [{"name": "Frank Darabont", "id": "nm0001104"}],
    "writers": [{"name": "Stephen King", "id": "nm0000175"}],
    "cast": [
        {"name": "Tim Robbins", "id": "nm0000209", "characters": ["Andy Dufresne"]},
        {"name": "Morgan Freeman", "id": "nm0000151", "characters": ["Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding"]}
    ],
    "keywords": ["wrongful imprisonment", "prison", "escape"],
    "metacriticScore": 82,
    "boxOffice": {
        "budget": {"amount": 25000000, "currency": "USD"},
        "grossDomestic": {"amount": 58300000, "currency": "USD"},
        "grossWorldwide": {"amount": 58300000, "currency": "USD"}
    },
    "productionCompanies": ["Castle Rock Entertainment"],
    "countries": ["United States"],
    "languages": ["English"]
}

Available Charts

Chart Type	Description
top	IMDb Top 250 Movies
toptv	IMDb Top 250 TV Shows
moviemeter	Most Popular Movies
tvmeter	Most Popular TV Shows

Available Genres for Search

action, adventure, animation, biography, comedy, crime, documentary, drama, family, fantasy, film-noir, history, horror, music, musical, mystery, romance, sci-fi, sport, thriller, war, western

How It Works

1. Fetches IMDb chart or search pages via HTTP (no browser needed)
2. Extracts __NEXT_DATA__ JSON embedded in the server-rendered HTML
3. Parses structured title data from the Next.js page props
4. Optionally visits individual title pages for rich detail extraction
5. Outputs clean, structured JSON to the Apify dataset

Quick Start

$apify run --purge

Deploy to Apify

apify login
apify push

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