> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://api.simkl.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# About Movies

> Browse and look up movies — discover by genre/country/year, or pull full details for a single title.

The Movies API returns metadata about theatrical movies in Simkl's catalog. None of these endpoints require an OAuth `token` — a `client_id` is enough.

## Look up a movie

<CardGroup cols={1}>
  <Card title="Movie details" icon="circle-info" href="/api-reference/simkl/get-movie">
    `GET /movies/{id}` — full record (overview, director, runtime, country, certification, genres, ratings, similar-movie recommendations, posters, fanart, trailers, external IDs, alternate titles, per-region release dates, budget, revenue). Cloudflare-cached by Simkl ID — see [Rate limits → Parallel requests](/resources/rate-limits#parallel-requests--when-allowed).
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

If you only have an external ID (IMDb, TMDB), resolve it to a Simkl ID via [`GET /redirect`](/api-reference/redirect) first — header-only, Cloudflare-cached, and the canonical resolver.

## Browse & discover

<CardGroup cols={1}>
  <Card title="Genres" icon="compass" href="/api-reference/simkl/get-movies-genres">
    `GET /movies/genres/...` — browse by genre, country, year, and sort order.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Pre-built data files (no per-user cost)

Two static JSON resources on the CDN cover the most common "what's hot / what's releasing" surfaces without paying any per-user request budget. Send the standard URL parameters and User-Agent; no `Authorization` token needed.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Trending movies" icon="fire" href="/api-reference/trending">
    `https://data.simkl.in/trending/movies_today.json` + week / month variants, plus Top-100 and Top-500 versions. Refreshed daily. Drives "Most Watched" / "Trending Now" surfaces without polling.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Movie releases calendar" icon="calendar" href="/api-reference/calendar">
    `https://data.simkl.in/calendar/movie_release.json` + per-month archives at `/calendar/{YEAR}/{MONTH}/movie_release.json`. Updated every 6 hours. Also covers DVD releases.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>