By the Numbers: Your Most Watched Movies (1 Viewer)

[Carabimero]

Since I got my first DVD around the turn of the century, I've had the odd habit of recording the date on a post-it inside the DVD case whenever I watch a movie. I started the practice to see if I could justify the cost of buying versus renting. Now it's fun to look back and see just how often I watch certain movies. Recently I decided any movie that I had watched a good number of times since I bought the DVD, I would go buy on BD, since obviously that movie stands the test of time with me and is worth the investment.

Here's a partial sampling of the number of times I have watched some of my favorite films (since 1999).

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES - 15
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK -13
THE GODFATHER - 12
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA - 10
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING - 8
STAR WARS - 8
E.T. - 6
JAWS - 6
THE WRATH OF KHAN - 5
GETTYSBURG - 4
GODFATHER PART II - 4
BACK TO THE FUTURE - 3

Some of them I watch so much because I think they are great, or entertaining, and some I watch over and over when I get emotionally needy, I guess.

What movies do you watch the most? Why?

 

[TravisR]

I look forward to seeing other people's posts but I don't even want to think about how many times I've seen some movies.

 

[Carabimero]

That was my A movie list. I'm waiting to sum up the courage to post my B movie list.

 

[David Weicker]

Well, I keep track of the last time I've watched something, but not how many times.

I purchase catalog tiles that I've seen numerous times (which is why I buy them). New films I expect to re-watch a lot.

As for leaders, well ...
The Wizard Of Oz I watched annually since the 60's until it stopped being shown annually. But I own it, so it still gets watched frequently. So that is upwards of 50 - possibly 100.

Holiday movies still get annual viewings, so most of them (Wonderful Life, Miracle, Quiet Man, Yankee Doodle Dandy, etc.) are annual viewings too, so similar numbers for them.

As my collection has grown (about 570 films), the re-watching of the top favorites - Astaire, Flynn, Capra - has slowed down, because it takes longer to cycle through. I can say that every film I own has been viewed at least twice (for the new movies) to dozens for the favorites

 

[Oliver Ravencrest]

I watch a lot of my collection in marathons,some annually. I do Christmas, Halloween and summer vacation movies every year, plus I love watching Comic Book based movies a lot. Some I watch every other year (The Rocky movies, High School themed movies...) There are other favourites that I don't watch as often as I'd like or as much as I used to. I couldn't tell you the number times they've been watched.

My most viewed are:

Superman
Superman II
Batman
Batman Returns
Spider-Man 1,2, and 3
The Howling
An American werewolf In London
Halloween
A Christmas Carol (1951)
Christmas Vacation
Vacation
European Vacation
Vegas Vacation
RV
One Crazy Summer
Die Hard
Jaws
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

 

[Carabimero]

I watch a lot of my collection in marathons,some annually. I do Christmas, Halloween and summer vacation movies every year, plus I love watching Comic Book based movies a lot. Some I watch every other year (The Rocky movies, High School themed movies...) There are other favourites that I don't watch as often as I'd like or as much as I used to. I couldn't tell you the number times they've been watched.

My most viewed are:

Superman
Superman II
Batman
Batman Returns
Spider-Man 1,2, and 3
The Howling
An American werewolf In London
Halloween
A Christmas Carol (1951)
Christmas Vacation
Vacation
European Vacation
Vegas Vacation
RV
One Crazy Summer
Die Hard
Jaws
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Superman, Spiderman 1 and 2 (Tobey McGuire), Werewolf in London, Halloween and DieHard are definitely on my multiple watch list as well. I like your list.

I assume you have seen the Donner cut of Superman II...?

 

[TravisR]

I must see the Star Wars movies, Jaws, Halloween, Titanic, Scream and most of the Friday The 13th movies (don't judge me ) at least once a year and probably even twice. If I really had to guess I must have seen Star Wars, Return Of The Jedi and Halloween 150 or 200 times in my life.

I spent most of my college years working in independent video stores so there was no loop of commercials (like Blockbuster had) and I could watch PG movies. While I'd generally watch whatever struck my fancy, the Star Wars movies and Jaws were always a good choice because you never had to worry about kids coming in* and they're awesome movies. Given that, there were times when I'd see the SW trilogy four or five times in a week!

* Despite the occasional language and violence, Jaws is PG.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I know the two films I have seen more than any others are Dr. Strangelove and Apocalypse Now. From VHS tapes to blu-ray these films have just always been go to pictures for me. After those two...I think I have watched The Wild Bunch a ridiculous number of times, A Clockwork Orange (I had an obsession with the novel and watched the film over and over again), 2001 (another film I obsessed over), Jaws (had a tendency to watch this every summer again VHS to blu-ray and finally I think suffered Jaws burn-out last summer when I ended up seeing the film 4 times, twice in a theater and twice on blu), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (fell in love with this in a drive-in theater as a child and still remember the way the sound echoed around the drive-in parking lot...and again kept getting this in every format, not to mention all the TV showings), Network (again an obsession and I can do several of the monologues from the film including a killer Peter Finch impersonation...I love Paddy Chayefsky's script), Being There (I'm a huge Sellers fan), The Great Escape (again this was on TV a lot and then of course bought it in every format), The Godfather 1 and 2, All the President's Men (another obsession), Citizen Kane, The Exorcist, Halloween (just because it is another yearly staple and so many opportunities to see it), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (again every format and so many times on TV), The Professionals (again started watching this one on TV as a child and then so many times over the years)...

I could probably go on but I know that the films that I have watched over and over were all made before 1980. Pictures I fell in love with as a child and that I keep going back to again and again. Bond films, Pink Panther films, John Wayne films, Hammer Horror films...these all had their impact and there seemed to be many chances to see them...I've never really tracked how many times I have seen a film I just know there are many I have seen a lot either because I obsessed over them or because they were films that just were shown a lot in many formats.

 

[AshJW]

Statistics. How I love them!

Since I got my first DVD around the turn of the century, I've had the odd habit of recording the date on a post-it inside the DVD case whenever I watch a movie

I'm doing the same thing, since I collect movies on disc (LD, DVD, HD-DVD and BD).

Here ist my list:

25x = Star Wars
20x = The Empire Strikes Back, The Return Of The Jedi
14x = The Magnificent Seven
13x = Rio Bravo
11x = From Dusk Till Dawn, Attack of the Clones
10x = The Fifth Element, The Phantom Menace
9x = Bullitt, Revenge of the Sith
8x = Desperado, El Dorado, Garden State, Ghost In The Shell, Pulp Fiction, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day
7x = The Great Escape, Jackie Brown, Casino Royale, Kill Bill Vol.1+2, Men In Black, Payback, The Maltese Falcon, Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country

 

[Walter Kittel]

I don't do this nearly as much these days (too much television to watch.) But in past years, there were certain films and franchises that went into 'the rotation'. Films that I would view at least once every year or two, (on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, HD-DVD, and BD - where applicable) including:

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Once Upon A Time in the West
Blade Runner
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
Dr. Strangelove
The Shining
Planet of the Apes (1968)
The Matrix (and to a lesser extent the other works in the franchise).
Dune
Terminator
Predator
The Crow
Star Wars (OT mostly)
Star Trek (a sprinkling of the original and next gen cast films)
Alien (Scott and Cameron mostly with Fincher every now and again.)
The Fifth Element (big time demo disc back during the initial DVD release.)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ben Hur
Harvey
The English Patient
Chariots of Fire

Theatrically, the original Star Wars feature holds my personal record of over 40 theatrical viewings. (This was before home video was a big deal.) It was an easy re-visit and was something to do when I got bored. Empire rings in at around 15 theatrical viewings, and Jedi is probably 6 to 10.

- Walter.

 

[TravisR]

Theatrically, the original Star Wars feature holds my personal record of over 40 theatrical viewings.

That's "impressive. Most impressive." I know that's from The Empire Strikes Back but close enough.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Boredom and no air conditioning where I lived at the time led to lots of trips to the theater during the summer.

- Walter.

 

[Tony J Case]

Are we talking just movies on disc? Then probably Halloween, Night of the Living Dead and Ghostbusters, since I watch them every October 31st. If we're talking most rewatches in general? Then far and away the movie I've seen the most times is Star Wars. I've seen it at least two hundred times over the last 40 years (and at least half of that in the theater when I was a kid. I'd catch an early show and stay in the theater all day long). Nothing else in my viewing history comes close.

Next up would probably the Rocky Horror Picture Show - but that's a special case, so we won't count it.

Beyond that, my other top contenders are: Jaws, the assorted Rocky movies, most of the Nightmare on Elm Street flicks, the better Friday the 13th flicks, and probably the old Planet of the Apes flicks. That's the 10 and up viewing group.

 

[Scott-S]

I don't have any specific counts but I know that there are a few movies that must be quite a lot of total views.
Every year I get 2 weeks off for Christmas. Since TV shows are in re-runs, I end up doing movie marathons of my own.

Most years I watch the following:

LOTR - Extended Trilogy
Harry Potter - All
Resident Evil Series of Movies
Nightmare before Christmas
Toy Story Trilogy

Some years I also end up doing either the 6 Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones movies or the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.,

One side comment: If you marathon the Harry Potter series back to back, it makes for an interesting watch. It is weird seeing the cast age in front of your eyes.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Here's some of our "favs" (and I couldn't give you a precise number on any of them):

*** At least Twice a Year
* The Lion King
* Toy Story
* Shrek
* Finding Nemo
* A Bugs Life
* Beauty and the Beast

*** At least Once a Year
* All Star Trek movies (even "Final Frontier")
* All Star Wars movies (Except "Phantom")
* My Fair Lady
* Ben-Hur
* The 10 Commandments
* The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
* All James Bond movies
* The Sound of Music

 

[Dale MA]

Back to the Future has gotta be the most watched for me. I first saw it on television when I was around three years old, my parents say I was transfixed, it was the first movie that capture my attention. Part II was the first film that I ever rented and Part III was the first movie I ever saw in a cinema. My parents bought me the Trilogy on VHS for my birthday (which still have a place in my film library), needless to say I wore them out from playing them too often!

Hard to say how many times I've watched them, but they've always been favourites and held a special place for me, without a doubt I wouldn't have become a film fan without them. In fact, my credit card is currently processing a $700 charge for the Hot Toys Delorean, so clearly I'm still a big fan!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

There's no way I can put together an exact list of times and titles - I'm just not as organized as Alan, although I am seriously wishing I could travel back in time to the day of my first DVD or VHS tape and give myself a pack of post-it notes.

For sheer number of viewings, "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith" is probably number one. I usually rewatch all of the Star Wars movies once a year, so all of the movies are high on my list. But I remember when that came out in May 2005, a few weeks after it came out, someone gave me a copy of a high quality bootleg that must've been stolen from somewhere internally, because it was pristine except for timecode that ran throughout on the bottom or top of the frame. I must've watched that every night for a month. I got really high quality bootlegs of "Superman Returns" in summer 2006, and "The Dark Knight" in summer 2008, so I also saw those movies a ton - multiple times in the theaters, plus at home on those not exactly legit recordings, and then a bunch of times when the official disks came out. I've probably seen all three of those movies at least thirty times each.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" is my all-time favorite movie, and I've seen it a bunch. At least ten times in theatrical/repertory showings, and then countless times on VHS, DVD and BD. I've seen this movie a lot.

I've seen the Harry Potter movies a ton as well - each time a new movie would come out theatrically, I'd rewatch all of the old ones again at home, and then when the latest would come out on disc, I'd rewatch the previous ones again too. And since the series ended, I've probably watched all of those once a year too.

Other franchises I tend to watch yearly include: Star Trek (original, next gen, and reboot movies), the Terminator movies, the Indiana Jones movies, the James Bond movies (sometimes I watch them all, sometimes just the Connery and Lazenby ones), and now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

I saw the "Back To The Future" movies over and over as a kid so many times that when the eventual DVDs came out, I got them but never ended up actually watching the movies (just the bonus features) because I had already seen them so much. Last year I got to see the first "Back to the Future" with a live orchestra performing the score, and I realized I hadn't seen it in well over a decade - and yet I still remembered it almost shot by shot. The "Ghostbusters" movies were also like that - saw them so many times on VHS as a kid, and when I watched the new Blu-rays, I was amazed that I remembered them almost line for line. Same story for the Michael Keaton Batman movies.

I don't know that I've ever hit triple digits on a single movie, but at this point, I know there are things that I must've seen dozens of times.

For less obvious choices, I've seen "Primer" and "Wonder Boys" a ton - not sure exactly how many times but probably around ten times each.

Weirdly, I've probably seen "Prometheus" more than all of the other Alien movies combined. (I always liked the first Alien a lot, and then the others not nearly as much. I think I've seen Alien 1 about four times, Aliens two or three times, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection twice each, and I've probably seen Prometheus about ten times.)

 

[Oliver Ravencrest]

I assume you have seen the Donner cut of Superman II...?

Yes I did and I liked it. It was interesting to see what might have been but I still prefer the Lester version.

If we do all time watched movies, not just on DVD/Blu, then I'd go with Star Wars, Empire and Jedi are my most watched. Empire is the movie that I've seen the most in the Theatres with 5 times. Once was at a double feature with Star Wars just before Jedi was released. Next would be the Indiana Jones movies, Superman I and II, the 2 Burton Batmans, Back to the Future trilogy, Jaws and the Planet of the Apes series.

 

[Doug Wallen]

Good question. That being said, there are many movies that I have watched repeatedly, mostly on home video (VHS, DVD and finally Blu-ray)

Jaws
Die Hard
Godfather Parts 1 and II
Psycho
John Carpenter's The Thing
Big Trouble in Little China
Raider's of the Lost Ark
Wizard of Oz
Absent Minded Professor
Toy Story
John Wayne and the Cowboys
Rio Bravo
Aliens
From Russia With Love
White Christmas
Touch of Evil
Planet of the Apes
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (a child hood thing)
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Wrath of Khan

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Well, I keep track of the last time I've watched something, but not how many times.

I do the same thing. I keep track of my movies in an Access database, and I have a query that sorts my titles from least recently watched to most recently watched.

I will say that I haven't watched any of my DVDs or Blu-Rays anywhere close to 15 times. The only ones that came close to that are certain movies on VHS that were taped off a broadcast, like Superman III, the 1966 Batman movie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze. Man, it was a really different world back then, which doesn't feel all that long ago.