2013 in Review

This post is going to be massive and I’m not sure anyone will read through it all, so before I begin, I would like to direct you to the website’s about page (it should open in a new tab), where I’ve added some information regarding alterations to the blog schedule for 2014. I’m still going to post daily but I decided to get organized and do a couple more themed days than just What to Watch Tuesdays. You can find it under the “About the Blog” heading. Check it out if you’re interested and feel free to give me feedback!

Now, on to the stats for the whole year of 2013!

New to me in 2013: 359

Re-watches in 2013: 87

Ratio of old and new viewing: Approx. 45 new-to-me for every  11 re-watched

Total number of films viewed: 446

FUN FACT! I watched as many films in 2013 as there were residents in San Geronimo, California as of the 2010 census.

Favorite discoveries of 2013 – Films that recieved “SUPER FIVE” (5/5!) ratings, not including ratings on the Corny Cliff Scale:

• The Book Thief (2013)
• The Desperate Hours (1955)
• He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
• Invisible Invaders (1959)
• The Locket (1946)*
• Lydia (1941)
• Populaire (2012)
• Reel Injun (2009)*
• Seven Chances (1925)
• Spine Tingler!: The William Castle Story (2007)
• Stella Dallas (1937)*
• Three Ages (1923)
• True Confession (1937)
• We’re Not Dressing (1934)

*These three were technically discovered in 2012 but the reviews weren’t posted until 2013, so I’ve included them here anyway.

Did I meet 2013’s goals?

My goals for 2013 were as follows:

1. Watch more silents!
2. Watch more world cinema!
3. Watch fewer films, but still watch a lot of films.
4. Finish the Barbara Stanwyck Filmography Project and make more progress with Mill Creek Musings.
5. Read more books about film.
6. Go to at least a few public showings of classic films. (I went to a few at the library in 2012 but would like to make more trips to the Redford this year!)

And here’s how I did with ’em:

1. I did pretty dang well with this! I watched a lot of silent shorts while working my way through the first couple of discs of the Slapstick Encyclopedia, and watched a few full-length silents, too. I even saw He Who Gets Slapped twice — once on the big screen, with live accompaniment! I watched 43 silents in total this year, compared to 9 in 2012.
2. I did alright with this, but not as well as I wanted to. I watched a few French films, a few Italian films, and one from China! I hope to continue discovering films from a wide variety of countries in 2014.
3. Success! I watched about 200 fewer films than last year, but watched enough to satisfy my movie cravings and keep up the daily blogging schedule. I also accomplished my goal of getting out of the house more (haha), traveling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Lexington, Kentucky and Rogers City, Michigan.
4. Failure! I didn’t finish the BSFP or the Mill Creek Musings series, though I made progress with both. My collection of Mill Creek sets grew by a few this year so I hope to pick up the pace of that series in 2014.
5. Success! I read about a handful and a half of film books this year, and I’ve got more on my “to be read” pile to continue this trend in 2014. I could have read more, but my fall semester was much busier than I expected it to be, so there were a few books I wanted to get to that I simply didn’t have the time for.
6. Success! I went to screenings of classics at the Redford, the Senate and even my local AMC this year.

Method of viewing:
Amazon Instant Video – 17
DVR/TCM – 57
WatchTCM – 8
From my own collection – 123
From the family pool – 7
In class – 2
Library rentals – 39
Netflix (Instant) – 151
Netflix (DVD) – 2
Redbox – 1
Theater or public showing – 34
Warner Archive Instant – 4
Youtube – 1

Tally by decade:

• 1900s – 1
• 1910s – 13
• 1920s – 29
• 1930s – 47
• 1940s – 57
• 1950s – 68
• 1960s – 29
• 1970s – 11
• 1980s – 17
• 1990s – 30
• 2000s – 70
• 2010s – 74

Ratio of pre-’70 to post-’70: Approx. 6 pre-’70 for every 5 post-’70

Films seen on the big screen, listed alphabetically:

• 2 Guns (2013)
• About Time (2013)
• Admission (2013)
• American Hustle (2013)
• Book Thief, The (2013)
• Broken City (2013)
• Captain Phillips (2013)
• Conjuring, The (2013)
• Don Jon (2013)
• Free Birds (2013)
• Gravity (2013)
• Grown-Ups 2 (2013)
• He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
• Host, The (2013)
• Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The (2013)
• Internship, The (2013)
• Jack Reacher (2012)
• Les Miserables (2012)
• Place Beyond the Pines, The (2013)
• Riddick (2013)
• Rope (1948)
• Safe Haven (2013)
• Side Effects (2013)
• Snitch (2013)
• Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013)
• Top Gun (1986)
• We’re the Millers (2013)
• White House Down (2013)
• Wizard of Oz, The (1939)

Top 5 classic movie posts, based on number of views in 2013:

1. Book vs. Film: Valley of the Dolls
2. The Roaring Twenties (1939) review
3. Favorite things about… Creature from the Black Lagoon
4. 100 Years of Gene Kelly
5. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) review

Top 5 TV posts, based on number of views in 2013:

1. Recap and react: Alfred Hitchcock Presents… Episodes 1 – 6
2. Mary Tyler Moore: A tribute (for the Funny Lady Blogathon)
3. CotC/Classic Stars on the Small Screen: Rosie (1960)
4. Recap and react: Alfred Hitchcock Presents… Episodes 13 – 18
5. Recap & React: I Dream of Jeannie, Season 1, Episodes 1 – 5

Top 5 post-’70 movie posts, based on number of views in 2013:

1. Book vs. Film: Shutter Island
2. Book vs. Film: Legends of the Fall
3. Favorite things about… Clueless
4. Book vs. Film: Carrie
5. Favorite things about… Grease

Top month of blog views: September – 6,984 views
Special thanks to Movies Silently, The Girl with the White Parasol, Classic Movie Hub, The Last Drive In and Via Margutta 51 for directing lots of readers to my site this year! According to WP’s stats page, aside from search engines, Twitter and other typical sources of traffic, these five sites brought the most eyeballs to TMP. (And they’re all wonderful sites that I have enjoyed since long before discovering the “referrers” section of the stats page, so check them out if you don’t already read ’em!)

The year in blogging events!

I contributed to five blogathons this year and co-hosted one. Links to all previous blogathon posts (from 2012 and 2013) can be found at the Events page. Blogathons have become one of my favorite parts of being a member of the film-blogging community, and I’m so looking forward to taking part in more in 2014. I’ve already got one lined up — the Classic Movie History Project, starting January 12, hosted by Movies Silently, Silver Screenings and Once Upon a Screen! Let me know if there are any other upcoming blogthons you think I’d be interested in! My first semester of graduate school begins in four days (AHH!), but that’s plenty of time to start whipping up a couple of blogathon contributions.

A point of pride

Even with road trips, college courses, camping trips and other distractions I didn’t miss a single day of blogging in 2013!

Goals for 2014

1. Finish watching the Slapstick Encyclopedia and publish the planned 11-part series covering it.
2. Aim for one Mill Creek Musings posts each week, so the project will progress faster. (This was partially the motivation for those aforementioned changes to the blog’s themed days.)
3. Continue (and hopefully FINALLY finish!) the Barbara Stanwyck Filmography Project
4. Host another blogathon or two!
5. Again, watch more world cinema!
6. Finish at least 75% of the books on my TBR pile. (I’m off to a good start! I finished The Chaperone, read the books on South Pacific and Ben-Hur, read the Jean Harlow filmography book and started Springer’s book on musicals to kick off the year.)

And finally, I would like to give thanks to all of you for giving this blog the success that it has had. Compared to 2012, the number of views the blog gets has more than doubled (approx. 24,000 in 2012 vs. this year’s 64,000). The blog also passed 2,000 followers in 2013. Now grab a tissue, ’cause I’m about to get cheesy. Running this blog is so much fun for me, and I really appreciate the fact that so many of you enjoy the work I do and keep coming back to read more. TMP has brought me friendships, great conversations and the rewarding experience of opening people’s minds to older/forgotten films. I started this blog for a simple reason: to share my thoughts about something that I love. I never imagined that in two years it would grow the way it has. The English language doesn’t have a sufficient word or phrase to explain just how appreciative I am of the people who visit this blog, but I’ll try to sum it up with a quote from cornballin’, early-millennium reality series The Simple Life: “I love you, I love you, I love you… boo-yah.”