Revealed: How the world's biggest movie website is run by a 'self-confessed geek' from a house in Bristol

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 04:58 EDT, 31 December 2010

• 43-year-old compiled info on 3.2m actors and industry professionals
• Founded firm in 1990 and still works as chief exec despite selling to Amazon
• Sale price has been kept a secret but founder and volunteers netted cash and Amazon stock
  

The founder of one of the most successful websites in the world has been unveiled as a self-confessed technology geek who still runs the website from his former family home in Bristol.

Colin Needham, from Stoke Gifford, began the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in 1990 as a hobby, and now the website is the 42nd most popular on the planet, attracting some 57million unique users every month.

Such is the power and influence it wields, IMDb - which has information on over 3.2million actors and industry professionals and a database of more than 1.5million films – has the ability to launch and crush Hollywood careers.

Film geek: Colin Needham, 43, started IMDb as a hobby in 1990 and it has become the 42nd most popular website in the world

Mr Needham, 43, confessed he never expected his obsession with films to grow in to the Internet's most comprehensive source of information on films and television.

'I have always done this because I love film,’ said the movie buff - who owned his first computer in 1979, at the age of 12.

‘The idea is to point people who like films in the right direction. I wanted to share my love of films and help people find things they might want to watch themselves.

'My wife and I still love going to the cinema and have this tradition of going to see a film together every Tuesday lunchtime.

'I love the idea of being in the cinema with all these people who haven't got a clue who I am but half of them have probably decided to go and see the film because they have read about it on my website.'  

The Internet Movie Database is so popular it can make or break film careers

He proudly admits that he was one of the first people in the country to have an e-mail address which dates back to 1985.

'I have always been into technology and film and I can still remember going to see Stars Wars. It had a massive effect on me,' he said.

'When I was a teenager I was writing video games. I used to sell them to computer companies and that kept me in all the things a teenager needs, like clothes and 12-inch singles.'  

After studying at Leeds University, he moved to Bristol and took a job as a software researcher with Hewlett Packard.

At the same time he began to compile his own database of film facts which would later evolve into the internet site.

His film obsession peaked in the mid-1990s when he was watching over 1,000 films a year. He would record the credits at the end of a film and then note down every detail.

A chance e-mail encounter in 1989 with a film fan in California prompted Mr Needham to publish his own personal database online.

The list was published once a month and fellow fans could log on and download it to their own computers. The first set of software was published in October 1990 and IMDb was born.

Hanging with the stars: Colin Needham with actor Kevin Spacey at the Toronto Film Festival in September

With the emergence of the World Wide Web, the site evolved and became interactive but it was managed by a group of 20 volunteers.

'The growth we were getting on the site when we first launched was incredible - we were literally doubling the number of users every month,' Mr Needham said. 

IMDb became a company in 1996 and the 20 volunteers who helped run the site were all given shares. The first time all 20 met up in the same room was the day the papers were signed.

The business was run from the family home that Mr Needham shared with wife Karen, a trained teacher and church volunteer, and their twin daughters, who are now teenagers.

But the website's real power came when IMDb began a service for film industry professionals for a fee.

The IMDb pro-site has become the industry guide and users pay an extra fee to see exactly what film fans across the world are searching for.

The figures are regarded as industry gold and can make or break careers in the notoriously tough industry.

Mr Needham, whose favourite director is Alfred Hitchcock and favourite film is Vertigo, added: 'I have been told that when people ring up for an appointment with someone important in Hollywood the personal assistant or secretary checks where they are ranked on IMDb before their call is put through.' 

He sold IMDb to Amazon in 1998 and was made a Vice President of the online retailer.

His day job is still as Chief Executive of IMDb and his role is to oversee future strategy and make sure his creation stays true to its roots.

The sale was part of three buy-ups by Amazon that year including Bookpages and Telebook, which totalled $55million but the separate figure for IMDb has stayed secret.

Mr Needham has always refused to be drawn on the sale price but in 2005 said it was a 'mixture of cash and stock'.

Asked if the sale had made him and his group of volunteers rich, he said at the time: 'Given that this was 1998 and it involved shares of Amazon, we did very well.'

As one of the world's most successful Internet entrepreneurs, he spends his time attending glittering film premieres.

He said: 'Part of my job is going to film premieres and festivals and the feeling of being on the red carpet with Meg Ryan walking in behind you really is quite strange.

'I took my daughters to the premiere of the new Narnia film in Leicester Square a couple of weeks ago and it was magical. There was snow falling and the stars were all there.

'I get to play cool dad and introduce my daughters to film stars. When we got into the cinema there were two seats in front of us draped in gold.

'Two buglers came on to the stage and then the Queen came in and sat down in front of us, it was quite an amazing moment. It is times like that when you have to pinch yourself.'

The IMDb website is still run from the house in Stoke Gifford but Needham and his family have now moved to a larger property in nearby Frampton Cotterrell.