Well, I can't believe I've been doing this for ten years! Ten years of data is pretty powerful. And the trends, Duke! The trends! It's envigorating. Here is my review of movie-watching data from 2024:
Grand Summary:
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Total movies | 198 | 220 | 224 | 249 | 200 | 182 | 181 | 202 | 171 | 123 |
| First-time viewings | n/a | 117 | 133 | 157 | 131 | 110 | 111 | 154 | 102 | 81 |
| First-time viewing % | n/a | 53% | 59% | 63% | 66% | 60% | 61% | 76% | 60% | 66% |
| Streaming | n/a | 55 | 81 | 157 | 118 | 133 | 134 | 160 | 133 | 110 |
| Streaming % | n/a | 25% | 36% | 63% | 59% | 73% | 74% | 79% | 78% | 89% |
| TV | 86 | 84 | 55 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| TV % | 43% | 38% | 25% | 4% | 4% | 2% | 6% | 1% | 4% | 7% |
| Theater | 10 | 11 | 12 | 16 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| Theater % | 5% | 5% | 5% | 6% | 4% | 1% | 4% | 4% | 4% | 2% |
That Theater includes one Drive-In and one movie theater. The only film I saw in theaters this year was Deadpool & Wolverine. Ugh, I'm part of the problem!
The other big note is that my streaming percentage spiked quite a bit. That proportion is mostly due to Netflix DVD ceasing operations. That might be a bit why my overall numbers also took a massive hit, but quite frankly I have a child and a high demand job now and I can't believe I ever watched 249 movies in a year.
My first time viewings were also solid, I really can't believe how many repeat movies I still watch, like that's crazy. It's really wild that 2016 was almost 50/50 but I think movies on TV was such a bigger force back then. Speaking of which, I watched the most percentage since 2017! I had some extended hotel stays here. It's really just hotels. TV has been such an afterthought for years. If only we had an accurate breakdown by streaming service....
| Netflix | 31 | 25.2% |
| Amazon Prime | 18 | 14.6% |
| Max | 18 | 14.6% |
| Hulu | 17 | 13.8% |
| TV | 9 | 7.3% |
| Other Streaming | 6 | 4.9% |
| Tubi | 5 | 4.1% |
| Paramount+ | 4 | 3.3% |
| Disney+ | 3 | 2.4% |
| Apple TV+ | 3 | 2.4% |
| Peacock | 3 | 2.4% |
| Planes | 2 | 1.6% |
| Theater | 1 | 0.8% |
| Drive-in | 1 | 0.8% |
| | |
| Total Streaming: | 110 | 89.4% |
I was pretty surprised by this. Netflix was a good chunk above the rest, and then Prime / Max / Hulu form a nice second tier. Max had been my mainstay for the past three years but now they're just kind of same as anyone else. Netflix is actually also pretty steady but just other sources have dropped off. Amazon Prime has really surged and I love how all the other services are kind of equally bottomed out. Other streaming included XUMO, Xfinity, and YouTube, which hasn't really changed.
My life is just really stable now, there's less going over to a friends' house and seeing something random on TV. I also did NOT watch a DVD this year, like how is that possible? You know, I feel like I watched Weird again. I wonder if I forgot to log that? We'll never know.
It's crazy, it's all the lack of Netflix DVD as I'm looking at it. Nothing seems to have taken its place, everything else is pretty much where it's been. Wild.
By Decade:
| 1940s | 1 | 0.8% |
| 1970s | 1 | 0.8% |
| 1980s | 10 | 8.1% |
| 1990s | 13 | 10.6% |
| 2000s | 11 | 8.9% |
| 2010s | 14 | 11.4% |
| 2020s | 73 | 59.3% |
| 2023 | 38 | 30.9% |
| 2024 | 35 | 28.5% |
Yeah, alright. I really just haven't sat down and searched for something old or challenging. 80s, 90s, and 00s are all kind of leveled out, but that's even starting to happen with 2010s movies, which is wild. My biggest seen year was 2023. Only five years in the 2000s decade were represented but my biggest year not in the current decade was 2002.
By Genre:
| Action | 33 | 26.8% |
| Adventure | 15 | 12.2% |
| Comedy | 28 | 22.8% |
| Drama | 22 | 17.9% |
| Horror | 18 | 14.6% |
| Thiller | 4 | 3.3% |
| Romance | 3 | 2.4% |
I don't know if I'll keep doing genre. Not a ton of interesting data here. Believe it or not I like Action and Comedy movies. I did watch a bit more Horror this year. That's fun. Yeah, if I do this again, I might skip this part.
By Month:
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | AVERAGE |
| January | 19 | 17 | 23 | 16 | 22 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 16 | 13 | 17 |
| February | 11 | 15 | 12 | 14 | 17 | 21 | 15 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 14 |
| March | 15 | 12 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 27 | 16 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 16 |
| April | 15 | 23 | 15 | 25 | 22 | 23 | 13 | 12 | 18 | 7 | 17 |
| May | 15 | 17 | 22 | 13 | 19 | 22 | 29 | 19 | 12 | 11 | 18 |
| June | 20 | 16 | 25 | 8 | 18 | 19 | 24 | 18 | 17 | 8 | 17 |
| July | 16 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 17 | 15 | 10 | 15 | 17 | 12 | 15 |
| August | 12 | 14 | 18 | 25 | 18 | 25 | 14 | 17 | 6 | 10 | 16 |
| September | 10 | 14 | 16 | 13 | 20 | 16 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 13 |
| October | 14 | 20 | 17 | 10 | 19 | 24 | 10 | 15 | 18 | 15 | 16 |
| November | 12 | 18 | 18 | 10 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 9 | 6 | 15 |
| December | 22 | 21 | 20 | 28 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 16 | 20 | 10 | 20 |
It was wild to see 2024 plummet my averages. December's still pretty good, but this was the worst January, April, May, June, September, November, and December on record. Yay. A lot of this was fatherhood. They kept some general proportions and February I watched more! That's something! Looking at these trends, the months are actually sort of even. September is always busy and that dips. February, too. December is a big catch-up month and you've got time at home, so that's nice.
Last year I thought that more people might be watching movies than we think. After talking to the young people I can say that uhh...no we are not. This was such a rough year, a big reckoning year for Hollywood. There's weird mixed messaging like how well the absolute rehash that was Deadpool & Wolverine found success. But clearly we are so sick of a lot of these other same old garbage.
The other big mainstream sequels that did well (because yes, they were all sequels) had something novel about them, like Godzilla X Kong or Dune II. Venom got in there, I don't know, that one is a bit weird and I don't think anyone actually considered it a success. But there were four animated sequels that did absolutely crazy. I did not realize Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 were so lights out bonkers successful. I really did not give a shit about either of these and will probably never see either. But those did really well.
Indie stuff is the weirdest, though. It's out there but it feels even more fractured. I'm not sure how people sift through and find this kind of stuff. It just takes digging and keeping an ear to the ground for that buzz, man. I'm not even happy with my pics this year, especially when I realised that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was going to be one of the best movies I saw.
2025? It feels right, but my numbers are going to drop even more. Stay tuned, folks!
