My Quest for 1000 Movies

As I rapidly approach my 1000th movie at the theater, I wanted to take a moment and re-evaluate 2010.

 

You see in 2010, I made a regrettable decision.  Okay, so regrettable may be a little over-exaggerated, but you get the point.  For the record, I am here to right the ship.

You can always tell when something serious is happening, as the announcement: "FOR THE RECORD" will be made.

 

With the advent of the “Early Screening,” “Watch It Before It Hits Theaters,” and “Same Day as Theater Release” options on TIME WARNER CABLE, I decided that if I watched a new release movie at home that was either currently in theaters or not yet in theaters, that I would count that viewing towards my theater count.  I mean I was paying around $10 a watch, so the ticket payment was comparable, so I saw no harm.

 

As I approach 1000 movies and as I champion the feat that is 1000, it just felt wrong to count these non-theater viewings in the total.

 

So with this e-mail, I do two things.

 

A. I retract the seven films from 2010 that, while they were new releases, that I in fact, did watch at home.

 

    These seven films were the following:

1. George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead
2. The Art of the Steal
3. The Disappearance of Alice Creed
4. Cropsy
5. I’m Still Here
6. Monsters
7. Case 39

B. I am reconfiguring my lifetime theater count, which as of this writing, stands at 987 films and it adjusts my 2010 count from 122 down to 115.

 

I wouldn’t have felt right about the actual count, with these films still in the tally. And I do want the 1000 film marker to be special…no BARRY BONDS asterisks for this filmgoer, no thank you!

 

So there you have it folks, the Reel Rhino has come clean.

 

In truth, I didn’t feel great about including these from the start, but with the joyous arrival of my son nearly 2 years ago, I knew my yearly theater count was bound to go down. This was right around the time that Time Warner began prominently featuring the watch it early options. It seemed like fate at the time, but it appears that I, like the theater owners of America, am a bit conflicted on what is the best distribution model for films in the US today.

 

No more will I count “watch it early” in my theater count….I am free at last…free at last!

 

Until next time…take care.