.movie Domain: An Ending Aimed Straight at Cinema
.movie entered the root zone on 12 March 2015 under an ICANN registry agreement dated 5 February 2015, and the current contracting party is Binky Moon, LLC. The word describes a single film as readily as the whole trade, which is why the zone holds production companies and individual title pages side by side. As of 12 August 2026 there are 5,890 registrations, 4,329 of them published.
Production and distribution companies, festivals, cinemas, documentary projects, review publications and promotional pages all register here. There is no eligibility test, and the registry asks for no producer or distributor credential. Try candidates on the .movie domain search screen, and see the .media page for a wider framing of content work.
This extension's agreement requires registrars to place in their registration contracts a clause prohibiting registrants from distributing malware, phishing, piracy, and trademark or copyright infringement, and to provide for suspension of the name where that happens. In a film-named zone, that wording is no accident. The practical consequence is straightforward: be able to show rights in what you publish here, and keep documented permissions for trailers, artwork and music. The same agreement also obliges the registry to run a trademark blocking service across its whole portfolio.
.MOVIE Domain at a Glance
- Registry operator Binky Moon, LLC (Identity Digital)
- Root zone entry 12 March 2015
- Eligibility None; no producer or distributor credential requested
- Zone size 5,890 registrations, 4,329 published (12 August 2026)
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .movie domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.movie Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$43.75 /year -
Transfer
$350.99 /year -
Renewal
$377.99 /year -
Restore
$403.00 -
Late Renewal
$62.91
Included With Every .movie Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.movie Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .movie domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .movie address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .movie domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a $62.91 late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .movie returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.movie Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.movie Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .movie domain
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.movie Domain Support
- IDN Support Yes
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .movie Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. The extension's agreement carries an open registration commitment, so the registry cannot set eligibility by who the registrant is; no producer, distributor or exhibitor credential is requested. Festivals, review publications and single-title pages sit in the zone alongside studios. Check whether a name is free on the .movie search page.
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For the campaign period yes, for the long run usually not. A single-title address gives the promotion a clean call to action, but once the campaign ends nobody is left to remember the renewal. You can equally keep the page as a folder under the main site and use the short name only on print and festival material. A long registration term and current contact details reduce the risk.
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The extension's agreement requires registrars to have registrants accept a clause prohibiting piracy and copyright infringement, and to provide for suspension of the name if it happens. Keep documented permissions for trailers, artwork, music and subtitles. Where you do not hold the rights, linking to the official source is a safer route than embedding the material yourself.
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There are two routes. Where you hold trademark rights, the portfolio-wide blocking service the registry operates and the dispute procedures come into play; without such rights, an approach to acquire the name is what remains. Either way, start by finding out who holds it and when the term expires. Run the lookup from the whois search page.
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The extension follows standard gTLD transfer rules. Obtain the authorisation code, lift the transfer lock and start the request at the new provider. On film projects the name frequently sits in a promotion agency's account rather than the production company's, and access disappears when the project ends — take the account over before you transfer. Run it from the domain transfer page.
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Keep the video off the origin server. Serving files straight from it strains both bandwidth and playback quality, so hand video to a suitable delivery layer and keep the page itself light. Deliver posters and stills in a modern format and build the page so it can be cached. Serve the address over HTTPS: pick a certificate on the SSL certificate page and an environment on the hosting page.
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