Thursday was the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. If you have been around me for any length of time, you know that the occasion was not going to get by without some sort of acknowledgement. So as I fired up Empire on Disney+, I thought about how many times I’ve watched the movie. It’s rare when I’ll watch A New Hope without soon following with ESB, but there are times where I’ll watch ESB all by itself. So even ANH is older, I’ve probably seen Empire more than any other movie in my life.
Which lead me to this tweet:
It’s the 40th anniversary of Empire Strikes Back today, so I started it again at lunch and realized that it probably is the movie I’ve seen the most times in my life.
What’s the movie you’ve seen the most?
— Cardinal70 (@C70) May 21, 2020
I was pleasantly surprised at the number of responses I got on this query. Here’s a sample of them:
It’s either a Star Wars movie or Apollo 13. But I’d put my money on Apollo 13. I wore the VHS out back in the day and it’s regularly put on by my wife to fall asleep to now.
— Jon Doble (@GroundRuleDoble) May 23, 2020
Probably any Star Wars movie, but also… Christmas vacation. Watched it every year for 22 years almost
— STL Cards // NC Dinos (@StatsStlcards) May 21, 2020
This is probably a tight race between Dumb & Dumber, Christmas Vacation, and Return of the Jedi.
— Rusty Groppel (@hes_verygood) May 21, 2020
The original Star Wars.
Known for the last couple of decades or better as A New Hope.— Steven Lee Holden (@StevenLeeHolde1) May 21, 2020
Occasionally, the most watched movie wasn’t necessarily by the watcher’s choice….
Minions or Trolls or Zootopia
— Carlos Beltran’s fake niece (@SenorBush) May 21, 2020
Office Space, most likely.
Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension or Frozen after that, thanks to my daughter’s obsessions with them a few years back. 🤣🤣
— Ben Funk (used / acceptable condition) (@TVsBen) May 21, 2020
Some pointed out that movies we watched as kids over and over had a huge advantage.
Without a doubt mine is The Brave Little Toaster. Would watch it every day as a kid between 2 and 4 years old. No way I’ve seen any other movie around 700 times.
— Loidolt (@loidz45) May 21, 2020
It is almost certainly some Disney movie that I haven’t seen in 20 years now and also probably wouldn’t particularly enjoy anymore
— John Fleming (@johnjf125) May 21, 2020
Probably home alone. My grandma always tells me that I watched literally every time she came over to babysit.
— Dan Dennett (@crackalac87) May 22, 2020
And then there is this one. Given how long that movie is, to have seen it anything close to this many times in two years is amazing:
Infinity war, hands down. Over 300 times.
— Lizonya (@nehville13) May 21, 2020
Overall, there were 59 different movies mentioned in some form or fashion. And that’s not including the general “one of the Star Wars” that was a popular answer. If you are wondering, here they are:
A Christmas Story
A New Hope (2)
Apollo 13
Avengers: Infinity War (2)
Back to the Future III
Braveheart
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (2)
Caddyshack
Christmas Vacation (3)
Dave
Die Hard
Dumb and Dumber (2)
Empire Strikes Back (5)
Frozen
Gone in 60 Seconds
Good Will Hunting
Goodfellas (2)
Happy Gilmore
Hitch
Home Alone
It’s a Wonderful Life
Jaws (2)
Jurassic Park (2)
Major League
Major Payne (2)
Mean Girls
Minions
Moneyball
My Cousin Vinny
Office Space
Phineas and Ferb: Across The Second Dimension
Pretty Woman
PS I Love You
Pulp Fiction (2)
Return of the Jedi
Rocky IV
Rollerball
Serendipity
Slap Shot
Snatch
Spaceballs
Star Trek VI
The Brave Little Toaster
The Departed
The Fast and the Furious
The Holiday
The Lion King
The Naked Gun
The Outlaw Josie Wales
The Rookie
The Sandlot
The Shawshank Redemption (2)
The Wizard of Oz (2)
Thor Ragnarok
Tombstone (2)
Tommy Boy (2)
Trolls
Wayne’s World
Zootopia
It’s Memorial Day weekend. There’s no baseball. Grab your most watched movie and add to the count!