Movie Reviews API
Movie Reviews API
New York Times Movie Reviews API provides NYT film review data — search by title/director/actor; includes "Critics' Pick" marks.
NYT reviews are industry-authoritative
Single source (NYT only — unlike Rotten Tomatoes which aggregates)
GET /svc/movies/v2/reviews/search.json?query=inception&api-key=... search by title. ?picks=Y for picks only.
Uptime · 30-day window
About this API
NYT movie reviews' standing in film is similar to authoritative voices in their domains — authoritative, serious, sometimes elitist. Movie Reviews API lets you search NYT historical reviews by title/director/actor/date; each returns abstract (some with full-link to NYT site), "Critics' Pick" flag (NYT critic's special recommendation), basic film info. Two main use cases: (1) movie apps showing authoritative reviews to users (more quality assurance than IMDb user scores), (2) movie recommendations — use "Critics' Pick" as a quality signal to filter out bad films. vs. Rotten Tomatoes API: NYT is single authoritative voice, RT aggregates multiple outlets — complementary.
What you can build
- 1Movie apps embedding authoritative reviews
- 2Quality signal for movie recommendation systems
- 3Provide review context for LLMs
- 4Movie blogs supplementing authoritative perspectives
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- NYT reviews are industry-authoritative
- Full historical review coverage from the 70s onwards
- "Critics' Pick" tag for precise filtering
Limitations
- Single source (NYT only — unlike Rotten Tomatoes which aggregates)
- Full review text not always returned (some abstracts only)
Example request
curl https://nytimes.com/<endpoint>Getting started
GET /svc/movies/v2/reviews/search.json?query=inception&api-key=... search by title. ?picks=Y for picks only.
FAQ
What percentage gets the Critics' Pick mark?+
About 20-30% of films NYT reviews are tagged Critics' Pick. Bar is high — almost all tagged films are worth watching.
Technical details
- Auth type
- unknown
- Pricing
- unknown
- Protocols
- REST
- SDKs
- python, javascript, go
- Response time
- 198 ms
- Last health check
- 5/12/2026, 7:37:58 AM
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