Flixster acquires Rotten Tomatoes

Social database for movie reviews merges with a big movie review aggregator

Movie lover community site Flixster has purchased film information aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, from IGN Entertainment, a subsidiary of News Corps., for an undisclosed amount. As part of the deal, IGN will maintain an undisclosed minority stake in Flixster.

Flixster, as can be gathered from its motto "Watch movies, Tell friends," aims to be the number one online community for movie lovers to discuss and share their favorite movies with friends. On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes, less socially-oriented, is a massive database of professional reviews, trailers, photos, articles, interviews, and breaking news--all, of course, related to the film world.

"Rotten Tomatoes has built a fantastically well-known brand that moviegoers trust when making their decisions," said Flixster President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Polsky. "Combined with Flixster's social networking and word-of-mouth, we're creating the leading movie destination on the Internet."

Though both sites will continue to operate as separate entities, the size of the two databases combined is formidable: 250,000 movies, 2.3 billion user reviews, half a million professional reviews, and over 20,000 trailers and other videos. In terms of population across the sites' various Web properties, social networks, and mobile applications, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes together see 30 million visitors a month.

As anyone can see, this is quite the obvious match.

Though these sites have a good deal of overlap, in terms of content, merging Flixster's social orientation with Rotten Tomatoes unbeatable database will benefit both sites far more than any competition between the two might have.