Variety Launches IMDB Competitor

Variety's Flix Tracker, which has a team of 150 people to investigate film credits and production information will work on a subscription base.
Flix Tracker (is a follow up of TV Tracker recently bought by Variety) is a database that doesn't rely on crowdsourcing but hard listing with human supervision.
With Flix Tracker, Variety wants to use the reporting it already does, supplemented with regular calls to in-development and in-production projects, to provide the most up-to-date information on under-the-radar projects.

According to the Fast Company report, Variety hopes the steep subscription fees will subsidize the print magazine's falling advertising revenue; Lionsgate and Jerry Bruckheimer Productions are testing the site in beta.

Flix Tracker will also compete against IMDB's free BoxOfficeMojo for box office info and their popular IMDBPro, which runs at a cool $124.95 per year.