OMDB API Movie Data Analysis and Tutorial

By: Andrew Estep

Introduction to OMDB API

The Open Movie Database (OMDB) API is a web service that provides people with a large database of movie, television show, and actor information. It takes data from various sources, which helps show a broad range of details including titles, release years, genres, directors, actors, plot summaries, and even poster art. The API supports searches by different criteria such as title, year, and IMDb ID. Developers can use the OMDB API for free with a limited number of requests per day, with a simple email request granting the user access to their own key.

Loading Necessary Libraries

library(httr)
library(jsonlite)

Generic Command For Obtaining Data

After signing up for a request with an email address, you will be emailed your own API key to access the data. You can then use the data for whatever you would like. Within this link pasted below, certain contents will be modified based on the nature of the request. The command can be modified to show things with t (title), y (year), plot for short and full plot, and much more. Within this link, the api key will also be replaced with your own for security.

generic_url_omdb <- "http://www.omdbapi.com/?t&apikey=9d77066d"

Demonstrating an API call with the OMDB Service

We will the the fromJSON command from the jsonlite pack to find details on one of my favorite movies, Oppenheimer.

oppenheimer_stats <- fromJSON("http://www.omdbapi.com/?t=Oppenheimer&apikey=9d77066d")

#We can now use this to create a vector for the Ratings of Oppenheimer
oppenheimer_stats$Ratings
##                    Source  Value
## 1 Internet Movie Database 8.4/10
## 2         Rotten Tomatoes    93%
## 3              Metacritic 88/100

As I make this, my roomate is in the room with me, he wants to compare the ratings of Oppenheimer and Brokeback Mountain

brokeback_stats <- fromJSON("http://www.omdbapi.com/?t=Brokeback+Mountain&apikey=9d77066d")

brokeback_stats$Ratings;oppenheimer_stats$Ratings
##                    Source  Value
## 1 Internet Movie Database 7.7/10
## 2         Rotten Tomatoes    88%
## 3              Metacritic 87/100
##                    Source  Value
## 1 Internet Movie Database 8.4/10
## 2         Rotten Tomatoes    93%
## 3              Metacritic 88/100

Based on these graphs we can see that oppenheimer tends to have higher ratings than Brokeback Mountain