Picking a Domain Name for a Movie & The Ten Worst Movie Domain Names Ever
If you’re creating a website for your movie, don’t let yourself fall into the trap of buying a crazy domain name that no one can spell, that is filled with hyphens, or isn’t a “real” domain name at all but is a sub-sub folder of another domain.
As a desperate attempt to get a movie website up and running, or for lack of better options, I’ve seen many movie marketers employ bad movie domain conventions such as:
- filmname-movie.com
- filmname-themovie.com
- filmnamethemovie.com
All of these are poor domains — they’re too long, they contain dashes, they’re awkward to say. Just try to say DASH in a tv advertisement and you’ll quickly realize the trouble you’ve gotten yourself into: the DASH part of your domain will be forgotten or misunderstood and you’ll have wasted your money promoting a domain people can’t remember or properly type into their web browser or mobile device.
If you’re serious about landing a great domain name for your movie and don’t have the time, resources or knowledge how to go about it, hire a professional domain name consultant, domain broker, or digital property agent. Don’t skimp on getting a high-quality domain name as it’s a key part of your movie’s online branding and social media buzz building efforts.
Here’s a fun list of what one writer is calling the 10 worst movie domain names ever. Try to avoid getting added to this list 
Some great ones here:
wearemarshall-themovie.warnerbros.com
disney.go.com/disneypictures/nightmare/
What are some movie domain names you’ve come across that make you shudder or that are so bad you’ve not gone to the movie and/or visited the website because of them?
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February 18th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
You showed some examples of bad movie domains. What are some good ones?
May 19th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Nice post. I especially liked the worst domain names ever.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
You are so right about the importance of choosing a *good* domain name as part of the marketing efforts for a movie. It’s too bad that many movie marketers don’t seem to understand that.
Here are some recent bad movie domain names:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e
http://speedracerthemovie.warnerbros.com
And here are a few recent good movie domain names:
http://www.thedarkknight.com
http://www.theloveguru.com
FYI, you’ll find lots more examples at the Website I just launched called Hollywoozy (www.hollywoozy.com), which as far as I know is the first Website devoted to reviewing movie domain names.
Keep up the good fight!
Bill
October 26th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Hey,, Cool idea.. Go back to your old school days of comic book days and buy up the domains of those books or heroes and I bet a movie production company will be knocking on your door to buy it when the movie is released..
March 24th, 2010 at 4:43 am
I have to admit I generally don’t look at websites for films, I tend to rely on reviews and word of mouth. Maybe part of the reason is the awful domain names they often have! You’d think that having spent a fortune on making a film you’d want to have a domain name that people can find easily!