Does it constitute a copyright infringement to host screenshots from movies on a movie review site?

Publishing screenshots on your movie review site would violate copyright and potentially trademark law unless you could establish that you are protected by the fair use doctrine. The fair use doctrine allows use of portions of copyrighted works for purposes of education, journalism, academic analysis (such as movie reviews), historical analysis and other activities protected by the First Amendment. Whether a particular use is fair depends upon (a) the purpose and character of the use, (c) the nature of the copyrighted work, (d) the amount and substantiality of the use, and (e) the impact of the use on the work's market value. Without knowing what specific screenshots and other materials you plan to use, how you intend to use then, the extent to which your use could impact the market value of the works, I could not give you a fair use analysis. But fair use is a far more limited doctrine than many people believe---and generally speaking it is not fair use to use copyrighted materials if such use is not truly necessary to the work you are creating. Because you could make and post the movie reviews without using the copyrighted materials and screenshots, most courts would not consider this fair use. Certainly, trailers are copyrighted and it surely would not be fair use for you to post an entire trailer. Of course, copyright law does not protect facts---you can identify the cast of the film and provide biographical information about the cast (provided that you do not copy such information from copyrighted materials). You can also publish facts concerning who participated in making the film (directors, producers), how long it played in theaters, how much money it generated etc. You need also to be concerned about trademark law. If the screenshots or other materials you propose to use contain trademarks, your use could violate trademark law if consumers might be confused into believing that there is an official association between your movie review web-site and the trademark owner. You certainly will need to retain legal counsel to prepare appropriate disclaimers, terms of use, privacy policies, and other such matters. Also, you need to worry about whether your use of screenshots and photographs concerning cast members could violate their rights of publicity. Celebrities own rights of publicity, and their images cannot be used to sell or promote other products (such as your movie review web-site) without their permission. And you also need to adopt policies consistent with the immunities that your web-site might enjoy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act---including voluntary compliance with so-called "take down" notices. Running a movie review web-site is a great concept---and I commend you for trying. But you are going into the publishing business--and you face a wide array of intellectual property issues. You need to work closely with intellectual property counsel to lay the proper legal foundation for this business----the IP issues involved are complex and sophisticated and this web-site ) is not a good substitute for legal counsel. And even if you retain legal counsel, you should procure intellectual property/advertising insurance because history shows that movie review web-sites tend to get drawn into expensive litigation.

Everything that has been said is true...and if you chat with an attorney about the issue, and you DO wind up getting sued, the fact that you checked with an attorney will help you with any claim for exemplary damages.

I think this is going to be fair use, provided you only use such screenshots as are minimally necessary to the movie reviews and you do them in low resolution such that they would be too grainy for blowups and you do them in a very limited number for each movie. One screenshot is surely okay - 100 screenshots is doubtless not okay (hard to justify why so many is the minimum needed for review). Rather than copy trailers, cast info, specs, etc. - might I suggest you hyperlink to IMDb www.imdb.com which already has that and has already resolved these issues long ago. I am not sure what you intend to accomplish with this site that the big movie review sites already do, so it seems to me you have a tough road to hoe on this. Be very careful not to copy other review sites. Linking to them is one thing, copying them is quite another, and they are likely to notice and have a vested interest to protect in shutting you down if you make a misstep. Also, note that fair use is a DEFENSE to a suit for infringement. You have no effective way to get it confirmed, except to hire a copyright attorney for a clearance opinion that the other side may or may not accept, until you are sued for infringement. So you have not one but two potential sources of conflict, the studio itself and all the other review sites that do not want yet another one out there. If you start cutting into their revenues they will be looking for ways to cut into yours so even if you really are making fair use that may not keep you out of court. And once you are in court the rules of procedure, rules of evidence, and cost of proceedings will be working against you as a startup fighting experienced opponents. I am not saying you cannot do this, I am saying go into it with knowledge that you need to use as little of other people's stuff as possible until you get big enough that the big players will respect you and leave you alone. Getting a respected copyright attorney on your side will hasten the time that you get the respect of the attorneys for the big players. In fact, it will probably keep them at bay and you toeing the legal side of things. It is a NECESSARY cost of doing this business that should not be skipped or ignored.