How many movies have you seen?

In high school, I started compiling my list. I opened Wikipedia and went year-to-year on films released every year and jotted down whichever I saw (but, it wasn't a definitive list, accounting for TV movies or direct-to-video). By the time I was out of high school, Letterboxd was a thing and I mostly just transferred the list over to it.

I write books and have been a film fan my entire life, but, at some point, I realized that I actually prefer videogames as a storytelling medium. That won't be the case for everyone though. It ultimately depends on what you like. For example, if you are a fan of Batman - the Batman: Arkham Trilogy is what I consider as the best interpretation of the Batman character. If you want videogames that feel closer to the linear, more cinematic storytelling of film, then something like Heavy Rain plays out reasonably close to a crime-thriller like Seven. I really like the Persona games, which play out like anime (they also clock out at 50-100 hours apiece). The Last of Us franchise is also probably one of the "quickest" ways a person can see what videogames are capable of as a storytelling art form - another series those developers made called Uncharted, is nearly the antithesis of The Last of Us, feeling breezy but incredibly enjoyable, with charming characters.

I don't keep track, so I have no idea how many movies I've seen. But I've been watching movies since I was a little kid, and I'm in my 50s now, so I would guess I've seen a lot of movies.

As to how many I actually remember, I would probably have to cut that number at least in half.

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At least 3,000...but a LOT of them were absolute trash.


As a teenager I would watch a lot of random late night movies no matter how bad they were, because I couldn't sleep. And then there were a lot of HBO and movie rentals just for the nudity and violence.


My current list of 'best movies' has about 450 movies in it.

I've probably watched about the average number of movies for a middle aged male westerner (although probably less than average at the cinema).

On top of that though, over the last few years I have tried to watch or at least investigate every movie which is a viable candidate for being one of the best movies of the decade in which it was made. That's involved going through various online lists, doing various online searches, and seeking opinions on (non-movie specialist) forums.

As a part of that exercise I watched I'm sure 1,000s of trailers (maybe 5k-10k). Of those I started to watch an unknown number of films (as a wild guess I would say 2,500), of which I would guess I finished perhaps 500-750.

Of my current top 150, I reckon I had seen 35 prior to doing this exercise.

what do you get if you cut a number you have no idea of in half?

A. A number you have no idea of

OR

B. Half a number you have no idea of

?

you whaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttt????

This
https://www.ranker.com/list/list-of-...1962/reference

is asserted to be a complete list of films released in 1962. It's in alphabetical order and has around 40 films beginning with the letter B.
Assuming B is a middle of the range letter, let's say around 1,000 films were released in 1962.
Let's say most people's films they've watched were made 1940s onwards, then we're looking at say 80 years.
So you'd have to go through a list of in the magnitude of 80,000 films to start a retrospective list from scratch.
That's going to take a while!

I remember I did it in my study hall period in the computer lab. Wikipedia listed movies released year to year. As a young brain with a healthy case of O.C.D. it was cathartic.

Do you think my 80,000 films estimate is high or low?

I reckon ballpark I might have watched 2,000 different films in full in my life.

That's based on average 1 per week aged 10-35 = about 1,200
750 the last 3 years or so.
10 years in between @ 5 per year = another 50.

That seems plausible as an estimate.

Since I started using Letterboxd, it says 765 and that's not counting the rewatches.

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Wait, did you misunderstand and think I counted every film ever made and not only the ones' I'd seen?

No, but you're going through a list of all the films ever released, right, and identifying which ones you've seen?

So I'm wondering how many films have been released. I know you went through a different list for each year, but I mean if Wikipedia had put each year's list in one entry, how many films would there be?

Do you reckon higher or lower than 80,000?

Anyway, it doesn't matter. Sounds like a mammoth exercise you did.

It wasn't as bad as it sounds. Their list on Wikipedia is far from definitive. It didn't have all the direct-to-DVDs or TV movies, for instance. So, I would say it had about, maybe, a hundred each year, give or take. Nowadays, it isn't a necessary practice. You can go to Letterboxd, find someone else's list of 1,000 animations (comedies, action, sci-fi, etc.) and just go one by one through them. This forum has a handful of lists as well.

X/2?

i think Damosuzuki got you beat