imdb-postgresql

Introduction

This project makes it dead simple to spin up a fully-loaded IMDb database on your local machine. It packages the official IMDb Non-Commercial Datasets into a ready-to-query PostgreSQL instance, so you can explore movies, ratings, cast, crew, and more without any manual data wrangling.

Whether you're building a personal project, learning SQL, or just curious about film data, this gives you a rich dataset with proper relational structure - titles, people, episodes, ratings, and alternative titles - all normalized and indexed for you.

Note: Data is sourced directly from IMDb under their non-commercial use terms. This image is not affiliated with or endorsed by IMDb.

---

Docker image that downloads the IMDb Non-Commercial Datasets and serves on postgres

Usage

Run the container

docker run \
  --name imdb \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  -v imdb_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
  abanda/imdb-postgresql:latest

This will download all the data and mount it to a volume imdb_data so that it persists across container restarts.

The total size is around 20GB.

To delete the volume, use docker volume rm imdb_data.

Connect to the running container

After the initial setup you can connect to the database using your favorite client.

User is 'imdb' and db is 'imdb', no password is needed.

Using the connection url postgresql://imdb@localhost:5432/imdb

Example queries

1. Top 10 highest-rated movies (with at least 10,000 votes)

SELECT b.primary_title,
       r.average_rating,
       r.num_votes
FROM title_basics AS b
JOIN title_ratings AS r ON b.tconst = r.tconst
WHERE b.title_type = 'movie'
  AND r.num_votes >= 10000
ORDER BY r.average_rating DESC
LIMIT 10;

primary_title	average_rating	num_votes
Attack on Titan the Movie: The Last Attack	9.3	10882
The Shawshank Redemption	9.3	2998114
The Godfather	9.2	2092537
Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama	9.2	16081
The Chaos Class	9.2	44019
12 Angry Men	9.0	907900
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	9.0	2051541
The Godfather Part II	9.0	1410759
The Silence of Swastika	9.0	10601
Schindler's List	9.0	1502465

2. Most prolific actors/actresses (by number of credited titles)

SELECT n.primary_name AS name,
       COUNT(*)       AS title_count
FROM title_principals AS p
JOIN name_basics      AS n ON p.nconst = n.nconst
WHERE p.category IN ('actor', 'actress')
GROUP BY n.nconst, n.primary_name
ORDER BY title_count DESC
LIMIT 10;

name	title_count
Kenjirô Ishimaru	10982
Vic Sotto	10659
Tito Sotto	9999
Sameera Sherief	9905
Dee Bradley Baker	9355
Delhi Kumar	8634
David Kaye	8205
Manuela do Monte	8163
Arnold Clavio	8027
Pia Arcangel	8025

3. Most common genres in the dataset

SELECT unnest(genres) AS genre,
       COUNT(*)       AS count
FROM title_basics
WHERE genres IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY unnest(genres)
ORDER BY count DESC;

genre	count
Drama	3216838
Comedy	2228311
Talk-Show	1411121
Short	1221605
Documentary	1089506
News	1073869
Romance	1064419
Family	843980
Reality-TV	637962
Animation	568493
Action	472887
Crime	472720
Adventure	435285
Game-Show	432265
Music	425407
Adult	364373
Sport	284124
Fantasy	241510
Mystery	232211
Horror	217486
Thriller	189022
History	169734
Biography	122530
Sci-Fi	118513
Musical	93299
War	39226
Western	31127
Film-Noir	868

4. Top-rated TV Series episodes (with at least 1000 votes)

SELECT b.primary_title AS episode_title,
       parent_b.primary_title AS series_title,
       r.average_rating,
       r.num_votes
FROM title_basics AS b
JOIN title_episode  AS e ON b.tconst = e.tconst
JOIN title_basics  AS parent_b ON e.parent_tconst = parent_b.tconst
JOIN title_ratings AS r ON b.tconst = r.tconst
WHERE b.title_type = 'tvEpisode'
  AND r.num_votes >= 1000
ORDER BY r.average_rating DESC
LIMIT 10;

episode_title	series_title	average_rating	num_votes
Ozymandias	Breaking Bad	10.0	237629
Felina	Breaking Bad	9.9	152114
The View from Halfway Down	BoJack Horseman	9.9	24196
Dream: To See It to the End	Legend of the Galactic Heroes	9.9	1538
The Magician Doesn't Come Back	Legend of the Galactic Heroes	9.9	1720
13. Bolum	Gönülçelen	9.9	1308
Connor's Wedding	Succession	9.9	38817
Somewhere in the Woods	Gravity Falls	9.9	3380
Battle of the Bastards	Game of Thrones	9.9	235736
Episode #1.19	Asi	9.9	1095

5. Average runtime per genre (movies only)

SELECT unnest(genres) AS genre,
       AVG(runtime_minutes)::INT AS avg_runtime
FROM title_basics
WHERE title_type = 'movie'
  AND runtime_minutes IS NOT NULL
  AND genres IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY unnest(genres)
ORDER BY avg_runtime DESC;

genre	avg_runtime
Action	101
Romance	99
Musical	99
Drama	96
Thriller	96
Crime	95
War	95
History	94
Mystery	94
Adventure	93
Fantasy	93
Comedy	93
Family	92
Sci-Fi	91
Animation	90
Sport	89
Biography	89
Music	88
Horror	88
Talk-Show	86
Reality-TV	85
Film-Noir	82
Adult	79
Documentary	78
Western	76
News	75
Game-Show	67

Table documentation

CREATE TABLE name_basics (
    -- unique identifier of the name/person
    nconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- name by which the person is most often credited
    primary_name TEXT,
    -- in YYYY format
    birth_year INTEGER,
    -- in YYYY format if applicable, else NULL
    death_year INTEGER,
    -- the top-3 professions of the person
    primary_profession TEXT [],
    -- titles the person is known for
    known_for_titles INTEGER []
);

--

CREATE TABLE title_akas (
    -- a tconst, an unique identifier of the title
    title_id INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- a number to uniquely identify rows for a given titleId
    ordering INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- the localized title
    title TEXT NOT NULL,
    -- the region for this version of the title
    region VARCHAR (4) DEFAULT NULL,
    -- the language of the title
    language VARCHAR (3) DEFAULT NULL,
    -- Enumerated set of attributes for this alternative title. One or more of the following: "alternative", "dvd", "festival", "tv", "video", "working", "original", "imdbDisplay". New values may be added in the future without warning
    types TEXT [] DEFAULT NULL,
    -- Additional terms to describe this alternative title, not enumerated
    attributes TEXT [] DEFAULT NULL,
    -- false: not original title; true: original title
    is_original_title BOOLEAN NOT NULL
);

--

CREATE TYPE TITLE_TYPE AS ENUM (
    'movie',
    'short',
    'tvEpisode',
    'tvMiniSeries',
    'tvMovie',
    'tvPilot',
    'tvSeries',
    'tvShort',
    'tvSpecial',
    'video',
    'videoGame'
);
CREATE TYPE GENRE AS ENUM (
    'Action',
    'Adult',
    'Adventure',
    'Animation',
    'Biography',
    'Comedy',
    'Crime',
    'Documentary',
    'Drama',
    'Family',
    'Fantasy',
    'Film-Noir',
    'Game-Show',
    'History',
    'Horror',
    'Music',
    'Musical',
    'Mystery',
    'News',
    'Reality-TV',
    'Romance',
    'Sci-Fi',
    'Short',
    'Sport',
    'Talk-Show',
    'Thriller',
    'War',
    'Western'
);
CREATE TABLE title_basics (
    -- unique identifier of the title
    tconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- the type/format of the title (e.g. movie, short, tvseries, tvepisode, video, etc)
    title_type TITLE_TYPE NOT NULL,
    -- the more popular title / the title used by the filmmakers on promotional materials at the point of release
    primary_title TEXT NOT NULL,
    -- original title, in the original language
    original_title TEXT NOT NULL,
    -- false: non-adult title; true: adult title
    is_adult BOOLEAN NOT NULL,
    -- represents the release year of a title. In the case of TV Series, it is the series start year
    start_year INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    -- TV Series end year. '\N' for all other title types
    end_year INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    -- primary runtime of the title, in minutes
    runtime_minutes INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    -- includes up to three genres associated with the title
    genres GENRE [] DEFAULT NULL
);

--

CREATE TABLE title_crew (
    -- unique identifier of the title
    tconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- director(s) of the given title
    directors INTEGER [] DEFAULT NULL,
    -- writer(s) of the given title
    writers INTEGER [] DEFAULT NULL
);

--

CREATE TABLE title_episode (
    -- identifier of episode
    tconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- alphanumeric identifier of the parent TV Series
    parent_tconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- season number the episode belongs to
    season_number INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    -- episode number of the tconst in the TV series
    episode_number INTEGER DEFAULT NULL
);

--

CREATE TYPE CATEGORY AS ENUM (
    'actor',
    'actress',
    'self',
    'writer',
    'director',
    'producer',
    'editor',
    'cinematographer',
    'composer',
    'production_designer',
    'casting_director',
    'archive_footage',
    'archive_sound'
);
CREATE TABLE title_principals (
    -- unique identifier of the title
    tconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- a number to uniquely identify rows for a given titleId
    ordering INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- alphanumeric unique identifier of the name/person
    nconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- the category of job that person was in
    category CATEGORY NOT NULL,
    -- the specific job title if applicable, else NULL
    job TEXT DEFAULT NULL,
    -- the name of the character played if applicable, else NULL
    characters TEXT[] DEFAULT NULL
);

--

CREATE TABLE title_ratings (
    -- unique identifier of the title
    tconst INTEGER NOT NULL,
    -- weighted average of all the individual user ratings
    average_rating NUMERIC NOT NULL,
    -- number of votes the title has received
    num_votes INTEGER NOT NULL
);