Personally, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I knew it was going to be quite the experience before I went for the first time‡ but it was so much fun I had to keep going back bringing friends each time.
It’s still a fun tradition to do though we haven’t done it since last year, we’re probably going to try and go again in a few weeks.
‡ I had seen it many times before going to see it in theaters for the first time.
The Fellowship of the Ring. Probably the other two movies as well but this one stands out in my mind.
The first Pirates of the Caribbean as well. Back before they turned it into a franchise. Such a fun adventure movie.
I have a huge soft spot for the second and third pirates films. I think looking at the first and thinking it could make a great trilogy is totally valid and although they’re definitely much more long winded than the first with less lovable characters, they’re good films and if I ever revisit the first, I generally revisit the second and third too.
I watched the Dungeons and Dragons movie when it came out and really enjoyed it, but it definitely felt like I was watching a marvel movie, albeit a well written one, Pirates may be the last YA action adventure franchise that isn’t just the re-skinned marvel formula, which makes it far more watchable than 80% of the genre since.
Also Pirates 3 is basically the creator of the horrible pressure CGI artists have suffered under for the past 15 years, so take that as you may.
While I enjoy the Pirates trilogy, I feel like they could just as easily have kept it a single movie. It was fine, the story was conclusive enough to satisfy and open ended enough to tickle the imagination.
Not everything has to be turned into a franchise or a ‘verse.
I do agree, and generally I don’t want everything to be a franchise or a verse. However I feel that a trilogy although generally profit driven can expand a film in a nice way, such as the original star wars or Indiana Jones trilogies.
Bladerunner 2049. I saw it five or so times in IMAX.
At the time the release flew under my radar so I completely missed it in cinemas, if I could I would go at least twice.
I’m usually the first to complain about character driven movies, as opposed to story driven. Usually I despise the former category.
Somehow, blade runner 2049 is in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. That’s how fucking good it is.
matrix I, skipped classes and watch it more than ten times in cinema.
Follow the white rabbit.
Man I remember the marketing campaign for that movie was incredible too.
The marketing was incredible because it leaned heavily into “What is the Matrix?” and didn’t spoil the plot. It made the movie itself amazing, because you had no idea what to expect.
I cringe just thinking about how that movie would be marketed today. The trailer would probably start off with all the action scenes voiced over by Morpheus explaining exactly what the Matrix was, followed by Agent Smith monologuing about how humans are a virus that needs to be wiped out.
Yes yes 1000 times yes. It was so incredible and there were so many great lines in the film talking about what the Matrix was without actually revealing the mystery. “The matrix is all around you” etc.
Absolute master class in building hype for a movie and as you say, puts modern marketing campaigns absolutely to shame. Although to be fair they did have solid gold to work with.
Dune is the only movie I willingly rewatched at the cinema. Looking forward to the second part.
Inglorious Basterds. Christopher Waltz is just so good in that role.
I dunno why someone downvoted you for this one - Christoph Waltz is amazing in everything.
When I was a kid, Nightmare Before Christmas. Must’ve convinced my parents to take me to see it at least eight times. I’ve watched it at least once every year since then, and it stayed my favorite movie for most of my life, until Everything Everywhere All at Once finally usurped it almost 30 years later. Saw that in theaters four times.
Oh, and Lord of the Rings. Saw all three in theaters at least three times each. And, for some reason, Superbad. Went to five showings of that.
Odd, Superbad is the only movie I’ve ever seen twice (or more) in the theaters.
I saw it and thought it was the funniest movie I’d ever seen, then a couple weeks later my buddy wanted to see a movie so I saw it a second time with him. No regrets.
I went to Pulp Fiction 3 times on opening weekend.
That was a good weekend.
Inception. I saw it 4 times in theaters. Every time, I noticed new details. It was such a unique and original story, and it was executed incredibly well. I had never seen a movie where the score was so essential to the storytelling. It’s such a dense movie that despite being 2.5 hours, I don’t think I could cut 2 minutes out of it without really hurting the pacing or missing necessary moments. Inception is the reason I can understand and appreciate both filmmaking and the composition and arrangement of instrumental music.
Same here. But even after rewatching it so many times, I never realized that the iconic Inception BWAAAH is actually a super-slowed down version of the dream world cue song (Edith Piaf’s Non, je ne regrette rien). There’s a really neat analysis done by Rutgers’ Christopher Doll, which explains how Zimmer uses the slowed down motif to signal which dreamscape we are in as the viewer while watching the movie. Link here.
Barbie. The details in the background of the movie (side comments, set, clothes etc.) capture the female experience better than anything else I’ve seen.
Star Wars.
Watched the matinee every day for a week when it first came to our local cinema.
Original Star Wars as a kid. The whole summer. 13 times. Have probably watched it more times since on streaming.
Nostalgia is a drug.
Saw Star Wars 26 times in the theater
We all paid for George Lucas’s second swimming pool that summer…
I skipped school (and got away with it) to watch lotr:2towers 3 times in one day at the theater
I actually walked out of Schindlers List and bough a ticket for the very next screening.
Bleak as hell but I’d never seen a film that locked me in the way that film did.
Why did you walk out? Did you not want to see the ending the first time?
I saw 300 twice. It was such a fun movie at the time.
The Matrix. I saw it at least four times in the theater.
