Find and Rate Movies

Find and Rate Movies

You can find showtimes, review movies, and get recommendations at Yahoo! Movies.

You can streamline your movie-viewing habits by using http://movies.yahoo.com or by typing movies! into any Yahoo! search form. Yahoo! Movies is designed to help you find what movies are out, which movies are hot, and where you can see them. Here's a quick look at some of the features you'll find on the site:

Movie Showtimes

Enter a Zip Code or City and State into the form on the front page to find a list of theaters in your area, with a complete list of movies and times they're playing.

New Releases

Click Coming Soon on the front page to see a list of movies that will be in theaters soon. Be sure to browse the Further Out column on the right side of the page to see movies opening in the more distant future.

Movie Trailers

Click Trailers on the front page or browse to http://movies.yahoo.com/trailers to view video clips and previews of movies. The archive includes movies from the past several years.

Entertainment News

Click News on the front page to view film-related news from the entertainment industry. For an overview of news from the entire entertainment business, point your browser to http://entertainment.yahoo.com.

Box Office Charts

Click Box Office to find out which movies are making the most money. You can view the rankings by day or week, or view the top-grossing movies of all time. You can also choose archived charts from the past few months to see how recent movies have done at the box office.

Movie Details

Click the title of any movie to find a detailed movie info page that includes cast and credits, photos, reviews from critics and other Yahoo! users, and a message board for discussing the movie.

Find Movie Showtimes

Yahoo! Movies gathers showtimes from every theater and makes them available in one place. Instead of scanning through a newspaper or looking up theater phone numbers and listening through their menus, you can quickly find showtimes via the Web, email, or even cell phone.

Showtimes page.

The most direct way to look up showtimes for your area is through the Showtimes page at Yahoo! Movies. You can type your Zip Code into the form on the front page or you can use predictable URLs to bookmark your theaters. Here's the format for the Showtimes page URL:

	http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/showtimes.html?z=insert zip code

Add your Zip Code and bookmark the page to have your local theater schedules one click away. If you don't know the Zip Code for a particular area, you can also use a city and state combination in place of the Zip Code, using a plus sign instead of spaces. So, you could bring up a list of theaters and showtimes in Sebastopol, California, with either of the following URLs:

	http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/showtimes.html?z=95472
	http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/showtimes.html?z=Sebastopol+CA

You'll see that some showtimes at some listed theaters are also links. You can click the link to buy tickets to that showing at Yahoo! partner Fandango, and you won't have to stand in line when you get to the theater!

If you'd rather just see a list of all the movies playing in your area, you can click the View By: Movie Title link on the Showtimes page or use the following URL format:

	http://movies.yahoo.com/showtimes/allmovies?z=insert zip code

The Movie Titles page lists all of the movies playing in your area, along with the rating and total running time for each movie. You can click the movie title to see the theaters where the movie is playing and the showtimes.

If you're logged in to Yahoo!, you can customize the Showtimes page with your favorite theaters. Next to any theater listed, click the "Add to My Favorite Theaters" link. To add several theaters at once, click Edit next to the Favorite Theaters title (customized with your own Yahoo! ID) at the top of the page. Once your favorites are set, you can limit lists of movies and showtimes by theater location.

Email newsletter.

To receive a weekly email with showtimes at theaters in your area, scroll to the bottom of any page at Yahoo! Movies and click the "Get Yahoo! Movies in Your Mailbox" link. The sign-up form requires your Zip Code and will ask a few optional questions about your movie-going habits. The email itself is a scaled-down version of the Yahoo! Movies web site, and you'll get movie news and info about new releases.

Cell phone schedule.

For the ultimate in convenience, you can look up movie showtimes on any cell phone with a web browser. The path to Yahoo! Mobile will vary by cell phone provider, but you can always manually type in the URL http://mobile.yahoo.com if you don't see a link to Yahoo! when you start your phone's browser.

Once you're at the mobile site, you can either log in with your Yahoo! ID to see the times at your favorite theaters, or you can scroll to the Movies link and enter a Zip Code. You should see a list of theaters you can click on, as shown in Figure.

Theater listings on a cell phone browsing Yahoo! Mobile

Entering or changing your preferred Zip Code is particularly handy if you're on the road and aren't familiar with the local theaters.

Click on a theater to see a list of the movies and showtimes like the one shown in Figure.

Clicking a movie title will show you all of the theaters in the area that are playing the movie, along with an image of the movie poster, as shown in Figure, if your phone supports images.

Carrying Yahoo! Movies around in your pocket means you can be a bit more spontaneous with your movie choices, and you won't have to plan your viewing in front of your computer before you leave the house.

Connect with Movie Fans

In addition to the official information available about movies, Yahoo! Movies lets you read reviews, add your own reviews, and find out what other movie fans think, in a number of different ways.

Create your profile.

To get started, click the My Movies tab on the Yahoo! Movies front page. Click the Edit links next to different elements of the page to add your Real Name, Location, a bit about you, and your favorite movie genres. When you're done, you should see a completed profile page like the one shown in Figure.

Movie listings on a cell phone browsing Yahoo! Mobile

An individual movie listing on a cell phone browsing Yahoo! Mobile

Your profile page collects some of your Yahoo! Movies contributions into one place. As you review movies or create lists of movies, they'll be listed on your profile page. That way, someone who enjoys a list or review you've added can browse other contributions you've made.

Movie lists let you bring some order to the universe of movies by gathering them together into groups. You can put lists together based on any criteria you see fitanything from your personal favorites, to an obscure category that you might be familiar with. Figure shows a custom list open for editing.

Yahoo! Movies profile page

A Yahoo! Movies list

To add movies to a list, you can search by title and choose from the search results. You can also look for an "Add to My Movies" link as you're browsing movies at the site. Clicking the link will let you add the movie to one or more of your existing lists.

You can also add your own review of any movie past or present, and Yahoo! has a great set of guidelines to keep in mind while you're writing. You can read their guidelines at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/movies/movies-13.html.

Get recommendations.

As you browse the movies at Yahoo! Movies, you can assign letter grades with a plus or minus to any movie, if you're logged in with your Yahoo! ID. If you hate the latest Star Wars, you can give it an F. If you're lukewarm on the latest romantic comedy but thought it was good for a laugh, you could give it a C+. After you've rated a few movies, Yahoo! will start to know what types of movies you prefer and will offer recommendations in four areas:

• Movies in Theaters

• Movies on TV

• New releases on DVD/VHS

• Movie fans like you

Figure shows a personalized recommendations page.

Yahoo! Movies recommendations

If you're ever stumped about what movies to see or rent, a trip to the Yahoo! Movies recommendations page could clue you in to some movies you don't already know about. As Alfred Hitchcock said, "A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theater admission, and the babysitter were worth it." And with a little time and effort at Yahoo! Movies, you can make sure the films you watch are good and worth the cost.