diff --git a/ox/imdb.py b/ox/imdb.py
index a603acb..1be501a 100644
--- a/ox/imdb.py
+++ b/ox/imdb.py
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ def getMovieInfo(imdbId):
   if not html_title:
     html_title = soup('title')
   if html_title:
-    html_title = str(html_title[0])
+    html_title = unicode(html_title[0])
     html_title = html_title.replace('<br />', ' ').replace('  ', ' ')
     title = decodeHtml(html_title)
     title = stripTags(title)
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ def getMovieTrivia(imdbId):
   triviaList = []
   for i in  soup('ul', {'class': "trivia"}):
     for t in i('li'):
-      t = str(t).replace('<br />', '').strip()
+      t = unicode(t).replace('<br />', '').strip()
       if t.startswith('<li>') and t.endswith('</li>'):
         t = t[4:-5].strip()
       t=decodeHtml(t)
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ def getMovieConnections(imdbId):
   soup = BeautifulSoup(data)
   connections = {}
   content = soup('div', {'id': 'tn15content'})[0]
-  blocks = str(content).split('<h5>')[1:]
+  blocks = unicode(content).split('<h5>')[1:]
   for c in blocks:
     connection = c.split('</h5>')[0]
     cs = BeautifulSoup(c)
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@ class IMDb:
     if not html_title:
       html_title = soup('title')
     if html_title:
-      html_title = str(html_title[0])
+      html_title = unicode(html_title[0])
       html_title = stripTags(html_title)
       year = re.compile('\((\d{4})\)').findall(html_title)
       if not year:
@@ -446,9 +446,9 @@ class IMDb:
     IMDbDict['runtime'] = 0
     soup = BeautifulSoup(data)
     for info in soup('div', {'class': 'info'}):
-      key = str(info).split('</h5>')[0].split('<h5>')
+      key = unicode(info).split('</h5>')[0].split('<h5>')
       if len(key) > 1:
-        raw_value = str(info).split('</h5>')[1]
+        raw_value = unicode(info).split('</h5>')[1]
         key = key[1][:-1].lower().replace(' ', '_')
         if key in keys:
           IMDbDict[key] = self.parse_raw_value(key, raw_value)
@@ -553,7 +553,7 @@ class IMDb:
         d = row('td', {'align':'right'})
         if d:
           try:
-            possible_date = stripTags(str(d[0])).strip()
+            possible_date = stripTags(unicode(d[0])).strip()
             rdate = time.strptime(possible_date, "%d %B %Y")
             rdate = time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d', rdate)
             return rdate
@@ -568,7 +568,7 @@ class IMDb:
     soup = BeautifulSoup(self.getBusiness())
     business = {'budget': 0, 'gross': 0, 'profit': 0}
     content = soup('div', {'id': 'tn15content'})[0]
-    blocks = str(content).split('<h5>')[1:]
+    blocks = unicode(content).split('<h5>')[1:]
     for c in blocks:
       cs = BeautifulSoup(c)
       line = c.split('</h5>')