Col Needham Pull Quotes
“As the founder of the world’s biggest film website, Col Needham is the reel deal. His brainchild, IMDb, compiles over 2 million entertainment listings and draws some 160 million visitors a month.” – Air Canada’s In Flight Magazine, EnRoute (October 2013)“Icon, mentor, deity of Bristol: Founder of IMDb Col Needham. There are few sites that reach iconic status, and fewer still that soar to the heights of The Internet Movie Database, which ranks as the #1 movie website in the world and the 25th most popular site in the United States. IMDb is used to settle arguments, give status to stars and movies, begin comment wars and otherwise serve cinephiles the world over with a dizzying display of details. We can no longer imagine life without it, and would be forgiven for thinking that it was conceptualized by a multinational corporation. But nothing could be further from the truth. Col Needham was a teenager when he began logging details of the films he viewed, pausing and still-forwarding VHS tapes to gather the end credits scrolling when most were busy following the ‘Be Kind, Rewind’ sticker. Fast forward 20-plus years and Needham is featured on The Hollywood Reporter’s 2012 Digital Power list, while The UK Guardian ranked the one-time teen as #46 on their first-ever FILM POWER 100 list, outranking Roger Ebert, Rupert Murdoch and Judd Apatow.” – Beyond Cinema (October 2013)
“Needham is the most powerful Brit in Hollywood – by miles, by millions. He is our Harvey Weinstein. More than that, he's our Mark Zuckerberg, too: the Steve Jobs of south Glos. That's because, 23 years ago, Needham created the Internet Movie Database. He is a living, breathing posterboy for his product: pick apart IMDb's coding and it'd read like Needham DNA. IMDb quickly became the market leader in its field. It still is: when it comes to online film coverage, no one can touch IMDb. The site is now among the 50 most popular websites in the world, with 160 million monthly unique users.” – The UK Guardian (May 12, 2013)
“As the founder and managing director of the Internet Movie Database, Needham might just be the archetype of the telecommuting Web-head. The site that he founded and runs, www.imdb.com, ranks as the 10th most popular entertainment spot online, according to ComScore Media Metrix.” – The New York Times
“Harnessing dual passions for technology -- he started a computer games software business when he was 14 -- and movies, Needham co-founded the Internet Movie Database in 1990 and sold it to Amazon in 1998 for an undisclosed mix of cash and stock. IMDb, the go-to site for information on movies, TV and actors, lists 2 million entertainment titles, attracts 110 million unique visitors globally each month and has a paid-subscriber level. Its mobile app has been downloaded 30 million times. Needham, 44, also oversees the Internet's top box-office reporting site, BoxOfficeMojo, which IMDb purchased in 2008.” – The Hollywood Reporter (2012 Digital Power List)
“Col Needham, founder of the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), has watched 8,277 movies since he first started going to the cinema as a lad in Manchester in northern England. The IMDb is the movie buff's bible, stuffed with figures about who played what, when and where, as well as juicy tidbits of what happened behind the scenes. The Amazon-owned site has 160 million visitors, with a highly profitable subscription-only area for professionals.” – GlobalPost.com (May 2013)
“Although Needham himself is now embedded in the film industry, he succeeds because he is cut from the same cloth as his audience. He has seen 8,254 films, a figure he can be certain of as he has rated them all on his own user profile page. These, as well as the talkboards and user-generated lists (Needham's include 10 Roman Empire Movies and his Top 100 Comedies Up To 1960), are not only commercially lucrative, they are what turn a huge data hub into something with a little more spin. IMDb offers not only reams of information but a means of navigating it, too.” – The UK Guardian (May 12, 2013)
“The founder of one of the most successful websites in the world has been unveiled as a self-confessed technology geek. Colin Needham began the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) in 1990 as a hobby, and now the website is the 42nd most popular on the planet.” – The Daily Mail
“[Col Needham, IMDb’s founder and CEO] is one of the most powerful men in the international film industry, a true Internet pioneer. IMDb is one of the world's most successful and popular websites. IMDb has an astonishing 100 million users and its immense popularity is showing no sign of slowing down any time soon. And just as important the site has grown into one of the most important tools in the film industry. Search for any film on the Internet and IMDb will be the first site on the list of results. The website is for film fans and is put together by film fans. Anything you ever wanted to know about movies can be found on IMDb and probably a whole lot more as well.” – The Bristol Evening Post
“IMDb [has] become a sprawling internet monster. Col Needham has overseen IMDb’s massive growth and increasing influence, as an advertising forum, a subscription-charging resource, a ratings guide and now an instant viewing platform.” – The UK Guardian