Letterboxd đ đąđ”: My Hundreds of Hours
In January 2018 I had the brilliant idea of creating an app to track my movie-watching habits. A simple search in the app store confirmed what I probably already knew deep down; such an app already exists.
I downloaded Letterboxd and got to work.
Getting used to the UI wasnât an easy feat; every new user will tell you that it is not the easiest app to navigate. But, I started scrolling through and tapping things, and immediately fell in love.
The hardest part of using Letterboxd when youâre first starting out is using it. Keeping up with it. Logging films. Following friends. Using it. But if you keep using it, and use it for as long as I have been using it, you will be rewarded with one of my favorite things in the whole wide world: data.
I love data so much that I pay $50/year to be a âpatronâ on Letterboxd and get year-round stats. As well as free screenings and other cool stuff.
Having now logged 6 full years of movie-watching habits; the same way Iâve logged over 2,000 nights of sleep in the sleep-tracking app Sleep Cycle, I have started to notice some interesting patterns about the quantity and quality of the movies Iâm watching. Or lack of patterns and just exponential growth. I don't know, I'm not a statistics doctor.
In 2018, my first full year on Letterboxd, I only logged 37 movies (68.6 hours). The following year, 2019, that number more than doubled to 78 movies (136.2 hours). 2020, something must've happened in the world because I almost doubled the previous year with 144 movies (254.8 hours). 2021 came in with 293 movies (514.8 hours). 2022 saw a big raise with 369 movies (639.1 hours). In 2023 I experienced the first dip with 366 movies (625.3 hours); shameful. And 2024 was my magnum opus with 434 movies (717 hours). If you're a data analyst please draw some conclusions from these numbers, I don't have the time to do that; I must watch more movies.
As the years went on, and I started rewatching movies that I had previously logged and rated, I found myself changing the rating. Either raising it or lowering it. Questioning my past selfâs judgment. Growing, maturing; thinking how I would've given Wanted 5 stars unironically if Letterboxd was around in 2008.
All of my friends know I watch A LOT of movies. I even have a few that try to keep up, and fail, always. For the average human being, watching 20 movies a year is normal. 50 might be a lot. Over 400 is psychotic and impeachable.
The mere act of keeping track makes you want to do more. The same way people who go to the gym like to track their progress through various apps, this is the same (and yet not the same at all).
How do I find the time to watch so many movies? In reality, Iâm not sacrificing any time when Iâm watching that many movies. I donât watch TV shows, or really read books (I'm sorry). If you watched a movie a day (2 hours of your time on average) youâd easily watch over 300 movies in a year.
Letâs call it what it is. A competition. Either with myself or with fellow Letterboxd users. I often brag about how many movies I watch, even if such time spent doesnât come with bragging rights.
Letterboxd has introduced me to a world of movies that is deeper and more vast than what regular social media exposes. I have found the most obscure piece of shit movies that I would never watch in a million years, but I have also found movies that have made me fall in love with the art over and over again. No matter my thoughts on the film, as long as I get to log it, sitting through a cinematic doo doo fest, or a timeless masterpiece, it's all worth it.
For 2025 I am aiming to watch over 500 movies. I think it will be incredibly easy to achieve now that I am unemployed.
