A little over a year ago, I decided that the best way to wean myself off of buying movies was to list them. It was a perfect way to feed that need to habitually collect without doling out cash for things that would otherwise sit on a shelf and gather dust.

Physical media is archaic, I know, but when you grow up dreaming about a Rex Harrison-sized library, you can’t help it. 

It’s even more glorious than this picture lets on

I started a list on April 29, 2017. The rules were simple. I’d add every movie I actively watched 30 minutes or more of into the list, note the year it came out, and go on my way. Unlike my personal writing, I was actually regimented and consistent with updating this movie list, too.

“Why are you telling us this?”

Because it’s been a year. For those 365 days, I tracked every single movie I watched, and the results are not what I expected. After the first month of tracking my movies, I projected I’d watch somewhere in the ballpark of 400-500 films.

My actual total was 190 films. 39 of those movies were new releases (meaning they were released between 2017 – April 2018).

Other Fun Facts

• I only watched one movie twice. That movie was 1990’s Darkman.
• The worst movie I watched was Navy Seals vs. Zombies.
• Out of the 39 new releases, five of those films were Netflix originals.
• 2017 was the most popular year of release, and the most popular decade of release was 2000-2010.
• The oldest movie I watched was a silent film that came out in 1911.
• I watched a whopping 9 Godzilla flicks this past year.
• On the flip side, I only saw one Star Wars movie, and it wasn’t even the newest one. It was The Empire Strikes Back.
• 20 of the movies I subjected myself to began with the letter “B.” This was the largest category, alphabetically speaking.

Even though a year has come and gone, I haven’t stopped adding to this list. Since April 29, 2018, I’ve added two movies. I plan on continuing this list to see what it will look like in five years.

What’s New?

• Literary Orphans Issue 33: Wilder
• My review of that Netflix/Jack Black vehicle The Polka King
• I reviewed the first entry in that anime Godzilla trilogy — Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters
• I also watched The Cloverfield Paradox, so you don’t have to