Since keeping stats on the games I'd played in 2005 had proven somewhat interesting (to me, anyway), I decided in 2006 to also track the movies I watched. After all, I know I see a lot of movies, but I wanted to find out how much was "a lot."
I didn't count movies made originally for television or DVD. I didn't count any movies I didn't actually sit down and watch; for example, I'll often turn on the commentary track to a DVD and leave it running as I do other stuff about the apartment.
I was a little surprised to find out I didn't see as many movies in a year as I might have guessed. At 54 total, I barely topped a one-a-week average. I won't inflict the list itself on you, since it turns out you could nearly build that list yourself -- I reviewed most of the movies I saw right here on my blog. But there were a few interesting stats I uncovered.
I didn't see a single movie more than once all year long. Every one of the 54 was a one-time-only affair.
I go out to the movie theater far more than I watch movies on DVD at home (or at other people's homes) -- all but 10 of the films were out at the theater. From this, I conclude two things: 1) I'm apparently not really as pissed-off at the rudeness of other people and the general movie-going experience as I claim to be; 2) When I watch DVDs at home, I'm usually watching TV shows on DVD, not movies.
And one more thing I learned: reviewing one's personal top 100 movie list is a pretty serious proposition. Over the last year, as I've had occasions to work some new films onto the list (like The Prestige and Little Miss Sunshine), I've found a few areas on my Top 100 list where I've thought, "gee, that's not quite right." And for a while, I thought to myself, "you know, I'd really just like to watch every movie on this list again and get a fresh feel for if I've ranked it in the right place." But now I'm thinking, "damn, that's 100 movies. And I barely watched half that in all of 2006." So who knows if that project will get done any time soon?
But one thing's for sure. I now understand even less what people could be the target of that old slogan "If You See Only One Movie This Year..." Who the hell could that possibly be?
I, too, recently noticed that most of my DVD purchases are for TV series box sets.
ReplyDeleteand I think the "one movie a year" thing is supposed to be like "if you are going to see a movie in the theatre only once a year" which I always thought was a pretty pompous/arrogant/jerky thing to add to the advertising. like they are calling you a cheap-o or insulting you for not seeing enough movies. makes me feel like the geico caveman.
the mole