How Many Movies Do You Watch More Than Five Times?

It should come as no shock to you, if you follow my audio/video columns, that many of my friends are, well, pretty much crazy. One former powerful lawyer in Los Angeles today owns hundreds and hundreds of units of apartments, and is happier than I’d ever seen him when he was a 100 percent contingency-based lawyer. In his post-legal career, my buddy’s days start almost always with a round of golf, as he plays in competitive amateur matches six out of seven days. When not limited by COVID restrictions or closures, he and his girlfriend eat out at each and every one of the newest, most cutting-edge restaurants all over Los Angeles’ Westside and beyond. In between popping off a smooth 82 (Lon is a USG 9-handicap, thus an 82 likely would win all of the prize money) at Mountain Gate Country Club or eating at Sichuan Impression (one of Los Angeles Times’ 101 Best Places to Eat in Los Angeles, and I can vouch for this Chinese joint with 5 stars of my own), he and Allyssa go to see nearly every commercial movie released. They see all of the blockbuster Marvel movies. They see all of the “For Your Consideration” touchy-feely dramas. They go deeper to hit up the more off-beat theaters near where they live to see concept films about gay cowboys eating pudding (thank you, Eric Cartman). They see basically every movie at every level of film-making, which is no small feat.

Would you be shocked to know that they have no meaningful home theater in their condo? No 85-inch screen. No 5.1 surround sound. No 4K UHD video. Not at home, at least. I guess they don’t need one if they go to the actual movie theater five days per week (they are the ones watching movies on the cheap at 3 PM on a Wednesday). Despite having a robust library for books, Lon and his girlfriend don’t own many movies on home video, either. A dozen or two titles collected over two decades plus, ranging in format from VHS to DVD, and none on Blu-ray or beyond.

While Lon and Allyssa’s consumption of media isn’t typical for home theater enthusiasts, it does bring up an interesting question as to how many movies the true home theater enthusiast might aspire to physically own or have in his or her “digital locker” of sorts.

When I ran my former home theater publication (up until late 2019), I had a writer for me who was Mr. Home Video. He wisely developed relationships with the public relations departments of the seven major Hollywood studios. When he reviewed their movies, he smartly sent them a link (aka: a clipping – a word relevant in the long-ago in Hollywood PR), so that the publicists knew that they got what they needed from the relationship. He got the faucet turned all the way on in terms of films from the studio, be it on DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, and ultimately Ultra-HD-Blu-ray being him sent to him at home. His main goal was to build a mighty collection of silver discs and, as of this day in 2022, he owns over 3,000, but that is a tiny fraction of what he ultimately was sent or reviewed. Those are just the titles that he kept. In a story of smart finance, the fate of the movies that he didn’t keep ended up on eBay.com, where he made a machine to sell relatively new release movies that were watched at most once. He was so successful with this project that he was able, solo, to put his highly capable and ultra-smart daughter through at Top 25 university in California. My wife recently scooped her up as a new hire at the publicly-traded, cyber security company where they now both work.

I can easily get in trouble if I were to make fun of somebody with 3,000 movies, as I have about 2,800 movies and TV shows (not counting 1,200 CDs) on my old-school 56-TB Kaleidescape movie server. I’ve got most of the Top 250 movies. I’ve got all but the latest James Bond movies. I have nearly every TV show worth your time on demand, and many in 1080p Blu-ray quality. The question is, why?

Unlike music, where I might listen to a recording over and over and over again, there are only so many movies that I am willing to watch beyond, say, a handful of times. Obviously, the category of “home theater demo scenes” is important for any enthusiast looking to show off or test the performance of their system, and that could make up a group of movies that one might circle back to for that one killer sequence, but how many movies will you watch start to finish like you might listen to Magical Mystery Tour or Electric Ladyland or The Wall?

There is a modest group of movies that make my all-time list, but not nearly as many as there are musical recordings that I can’t live without and plan on listening to hundreds and hundreds more times, start to finish, before I am done on this planet. I recently made a list for myself, and it was about 25 movies. Then I asked some of my home theater enthusiast friends, and even if they had big collections of media, they didn’t watch too many of the same movies over and over. Rarely was the answer to my question above 50 movies total, in the all-time/any-time list.

My list of 25 says a lot about me. Airplane!, Fletch, Animal House, The Naked Gun, Caddyshack, Slapshot, Happy Gilmore, This Is Spinal Tap are at one wing of my all-time collection. The Godfather (I and II – don’t even mention III to me), Goodfellas and even Casino are on my list. Pulp Fiction is an easy watch anywhere-anytime. I have more Hollywood, oddball favorites, like David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross and Robert Altman’s The Player. But how much deeper is the core collection? About 25 movies, even though I own almost 3,000 in some format or other.

What’s eye-opening is how my family consumes movies. First off, they watch far more movies and television shows than I do. Until about this time last year, my wife worked as an executive at Amazon Studios and had voting rights for the Emmys, which meant we got nearly every bit of content sent our way with additional digital access. On top of that, we’ve got a well-equipped DirecTV package, as well as streaming options that include Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, HBO+, AppleTV and likely others that I don’t even know about. When my wife, mother-in-law, and/or son want to watch content, they go to the Roku and dial in something through the pay services that we have. I can’t remember the last time that they went to the Kaleidescape, although they absolutely could with the flick of a Crestron remote button.

In past homes, I have spent major money on custom cabinetry just to house my various media collections. When I lived in the Brentwood part of West Los Angeles, I had custom woodwork done for SACDs, DVD-Audio discs, 2,000 Compact Discs, DVD-Video discs, HD-DVDs, and Blu-rays. It cost a fortune and was an epic pain in the ass to manage if you wanted to take out a few titles and listen. I ripped the SACDs and DVD-Audio discs onto a portable hard drive, and sold them to an audiophile who was over the moon to get such a robust collection of music in HD. The Compact Discs and DVD-Video discs went into Case Logic cases, and haven’t been touched in a decade. Simply put: there is no reason. You can’t hear or see a difference between a recording on a hard drive and one spinning in an Oppo (I sold my Oppo, too, although it made me sad, as they were one of my favorite AV companies).

Is it Time to Dump Your Silver Disc Collection?

My question for you is: could it be time to go Marie Condo and look into to the art and beauty of having fewer physical things, in this case, silver discs with movies on them. Imagine how much space you could clear up in your media room if you consolidated your movies? Imagine how much less clutter you would have in your theater? Would you have access to any fewer movies? Unlikely. Would it cost a fortune? Not really, as many of today’s streaming services only cost a fraction of the cost of a Blu-ray. Would you have more 4K video? That is almost a lock with today’s streaming. And for the movies that you don’t already own – you can “rent” them for as low as a few bucks if they aren’t on one of your paid streaming services or your movie isn’t in your digital locker.

Before you write me off as certifiably insane (easier to do than one might think), make your own list of must-have or will-watch-more-than-five-time movies, and report back here in the comments what your number is. Is it 25, 50 or more? What would you do with all of the room that you saved by getting rid of your movies or consolidating them down to a much smaller form factor? Heck, you can even donate them to places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army. I saw a news segment on the Salvation Army’s receipt just for home video. Maybe you can get some money back on your taxes while modernizing and de-cluttering your theater. That could be a win-win but check with your CPA first – okay?