History
This is a quick overview of the history of The Movie Files!

March 11, 2001- In an attempt to keep track of the movies I've seen, The Movie Files is founded!

September 9, 2002- I watch Swimfan, my 185th film (odd milestone to celebrate, but this is as far back as The Wayback Machine goes).

December 11, 2003- I watch Dreamcatcher, my 250th movie.

May 5, 2009- I watch my 1,500th movie.

2010- During this year, I switch The Movie Files website away from www.geocities.com/moviefiles882 to themoviefiles.org.

December 1, 2010- With only 100 days until my 10 year anniversary, I'm sitting at 1,900 films. I decide to attempt 100 movies in 100 days.

March 11, 2011- I finish 100 movies in 100 days with Inception, my 2,000th movie. Over the first 10 years of The Movie Files, I averaged an astonishing 200 movies a year!

March 11, 2012- After a tumultuous year, including a new job and a move across the country, I celebrate my 11th anniversay. Take Shelter was my 2,170th movie. I'm 30 movies behind my desired pace, but still a good effort, given everything that happened in the last 366 days.

February 21, 2013- With Gentleman's Agreement, I have now officially seen every film to have ever won the Academy Award for Best Picture (all 84 films).

March 11, 2013- I celebrate my 12th anniversary of The Movie Files with Wreck-It Ralph, my 2,429th film! Despite a busy year, including a job change, another move, and a wedding, I manage to pull off a very surprising 259 movies! This not only gets me back on my 200-a-year pace, it puts me ahead of pace.

June 9, 2013- With Hanging Up, I have now seen at least 100 movies in every year of the 2000-2009 decade. This is a major milestone that I've been working a long time to achieve.

July 20, 2013- I watch Giant, which is my 2,500th movie! I'm 25% of the way to my lifetime goal of 10,000 films.

March 11, 2014- With Runner Runner, I celebrate the 13th anniversary of The Movie Files with my 2,607th film (and 54 short films). This year, I watched 178 movies, which is a bit behind my goal of 200/year. I doubt I will be able to keep my pace up forever, but I did get close!

August 2014- After over 13 years of hosting The Movie Files at Yahoo, it no longer made sense to continue the partnership. While viewers shouldn't notice much difference, we have switched to hosting at iPage. This was a huge endeavor that took a lot of hours of work. We're excited about our new partner!

February 27, 2015- While fighting against it for years, I've finally decided to include television series in The Movie Files. This is in recognition to the blurring lines between different media, especially TV and movies. Movie stars are increasingly flocking to TV and the quality of TV has rivaled the movies in recent years. Series like the Marvel Cinematic Universe have further blurred those lines. So, I'll start adding TV series, but only ones that have ended and ones of which I've seen every episode.

March 11, 2015- The 14th anniversary of The Movie Files is celebrated with Whiplash, my 2,797th movie (with 61 short films and 5 television series). In the past year, I watched 190 movies. I'd have liked to get at least 3 more to stay on my 200/year pace, but with a new baby taking up a lot of time, I'm pretty happy with where I ended up.

March 11, 2016- I hit a major milestone, celebrating the 15th year of The Movie Files with Bridge of Spies. I'm now at 2,948 movies, 76 short films, and 18 television series. In the last year (my first full year as a dad), I watched 151 movies, 15 short films, and 13 television series (most of which were catching up on past series I've seen). While this is off my ideal pace, a combination of significantly less time now that I have a son, a lot of travel for work (I refuse to watch movies on planes), and an increase in television watching (I've never watched as much TV as I am right now) contributed to this. Overall, I'm pleased with where I am. While I would have loved to see another 50 movies this year, I wouldn't trade a second of time with my son for that.

June 23, 2016- I watch Steve Jobs, which is my 3,000th movie. It took me 15 years, 3 months, and 12 days to reach this milestone. I'm now at 30% of my lifetime goal. Given the enormity of hitting this mark, I thought I'd share some thoughts about what it means for me to hit 3,000 movies and where I go from here. Thoughts on 3000 Movies

March 11, 2017- The Movie Files has now existed for 16 years. To celebrate, I watch Deepwater Horizon. I'm now at 3,111 movies, 77 short films, and 21 television series. This year, I watched 163 movies, 1 short film, and 3 television series. This is now 4 years in a row that I haven't been able to hit my goal of 200 movies - that's okay, though. Life is extremely busy and I still managed to get close and improve on the number I watched last year. I've been a bit reflective of all these years of watching movies lately. It's hard to believe. While it's getting harder, I'm still moving forward. See you soon.

March 11, 2018- Another year in the books and The Movie Files is 17 years old. At this mark, I've seen 3,293 movies, 98 short films, and 22 television series. My celebratory movie this year was Thor: Ragnarok. In the last year, I watched 182 movies, 21 short films, and 1 television series. This was a good year and I worked hard to see many of those films I "should have" seen. Even though I have a long way to go, there's quite a great deal I want to accomplish before hitting 4,000 films. The next few years should be fun!

July 1, 2018- I watch Martin McDonagh's Six Shooter, the Academy Award winner for Best Short Film, Live Action. It is the 100th short film I've seen.

March 11, 2019- I celebrate the 18th year of The Movie Files (my site can now legally vote!) by watching Overlord and The Wife. The amazing thing about this milestone is that I've now officially been watching and recording movies for half my life. Half of my life. In the past year, I watched 194 movies, 12 short films, and finished 6 television series. My numbers are currently 3,487 films, 110 short films, and 28 television series.

March 17, 2019- I watch The Girl in the Spider's Web, which is my 1000th movie from the 2010-2019 decade! I have a lot more to watch, but this is a pretty cool milestone. This is only the 2nd decade where I've seen at least 1000 films (2000-2009 was the first).

March 31, 2019- With 1998's Twilight, I have now seen at least 100 movies in every year from 1998-2017, a period of 20 years.

April 6, 2019- I have now seen 3,500 movies! The Nutcracker and the Four Realms got me to this major milestone. It took me 18 years and 25 days to hit this number. I'm 35% of the way to my lifetime goal and now I can start that long march to 4,000.

March 11, 2020- The 19th anniversary of The Movie Files is celebrated with Blinded by the Light. I've now seen 3,677 movies, 124 short films, and 38 television series. In the past year, I saw 190 movies, 14 short films, and a finished 10 television series. Pretty amazing to think I'm now a year away from celebrating two decades of tracking movies.

March 11, 2021- The Movie Files celebrates 20 years! I've now been tracking and reviewing movies for two decades. To cap off the anniversary, I watch Boss Level. This anniversary feels bittersweet, because it comes after the worst year in memory, a year where we dealt with incompetent governmental leadership, a deadly pandemic, threats against our democracy, and a disruption to nearly every aspect of our lives. The movie industry was decimated this year. So many potentially great movies shifted release dates, leaving 2020 as an aberration. The only movie I saw in theaters was Tenet, and it felt so weird to sit there in a mostly empty theater, masked up and hoping no one was sick. But, I digress. At the 20 year mark, I'm at 3,853 movies. So, for 7,306 days, I averaged a movie every 1.8 days. I'm at 156 short films and 49 television series. In this past pandemic year, I watched 176 films, 32 short films, and 11 television series. I don't know what the future looks like in this uncertain world, but I wanted to pause today and reflect on what I've accomplished in two decades.

May 14, 2021- Freaks and Geeks is the 50th television series I've reviewed. That's a total of 161 seasons and 2,418 episodes!

August 19, 2021- I've now seen all 100 films on the 2007 version of the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies List (A Night at the Opera was the final film I needed to see). The average rating of the list was an exceptionally strong 8.035.

March 11, 2022- We celebrate the 21st anniversary of The Movie Files in a year where it feels like the world is slowly moving past Covid-19. We're not out of the woods by any stretch, but some normalcy is returning. We're certainly seeing a return to form in the movie world. To celebrate, I watch The Adam Project. At this milestone, I've seen 3,993 movies, 169 short films, and the entirety of 60 television series. Over the past year, I only watched 140 films. That may be the fewest I've ever seen in a year. There's many factors that contributed to this- my kids are older (so am I), my job has been more challenging, the world is still in upheaval, and there's more entertainment options than ever (television, video games, etc). I also watched 13 short films and I finished 11 television series. While I wish I was further along, I choose to celebrate the achievements here, verses focus on what I wish I'd done. That being said, I need to focus more on movies in the coming year.

April 14, 2022- I watch my 4,000th movie! Unfortunately, I lost track of where I was, so the bad The Rental was the movie I watched to hit that milestone. Still, it's a big accomplishment for me. It took me 21 years, 1 month, and 4 days (or 7,705 days) to hit this number. I'm now at 40% of my lifetime goal. Here are my Thoughts on 4,000 Movies

March 11, 2023- I've tracked and wrote about movies for 22 years now. It's impossible for me to not pause and reflect as this date approaches each year. My life- and the world- have changed so much since I first began in a college dorm room way back in 2001. There's never been more demands on my time or entertainment options. I turned 40 years old this past year and thinking about family commitments, work commitments, the endless entertainment options in movies, television, books, video games, comics- there's too much out there for anyone to ever study and understand. I'm currently at a total of 4,127 movies, 190 short films, and 68 television series (3,010 total episodes). Over the past year, I watched 134 movies, 21 short films, and finished 8 television series. I didn't get the increased focus on movies that I wished for last year, indeed, I watched fewer than over the past year. I'm okay with that. To celebrate this milestone, I watched two films- Chip-n-Dale: Rescue Rangers (with my kids) and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (with my wife). This was a good milestone and I choose to celebrate all I've done over the years.

May 28, 2023- I've decided to start reviewing the video games I've completed. I know this takes "The Move Files" further away from its original intention, but video games are becoming more cinematic all the time. Being stuck inside during Covid really rekindled my love of video games, so I think it makes sense to collect my thoughts on games here.

October 8, 2023- I watch The Photograph, which is my 100th movie of 2020 (side note, that pandemic year really messed things up- I cannot comprehend it's taken me this long to hit that milestone. I'm way behind). That means I've now seen 100 movies each year from 1996-2020, a period of 25 years.

March 11, 2024- The Movie Files has now existed for 23 years. At this mark, I've seen 4,264 movies. 199 short films. 77 television series (3,311 episodes). 33 video games (although I'm still working on adding all the ones from my list). In the past year, I managed to watch 137 films, 9 short films, and 9 television series. There's a part of me that wishes those numbers were much higher. However, as I've aged, I look at things differently. My life was never about those numbers. It's about my kids, my family, the adventures we have out in the world, the good I can do through my work. I wouldn't trade all the hours I've spent on entertainment- I adore that time and consider it well spent. However, I also wouldn't trade my hours away from screens just to boost numbers. I'm content with what I accomplished over the past and what I've done over the entire 23 year run of The Movie Files. I have no plans of stopping. I celebrated this year with Poor Things and I look forward to another great year of entertainment ahead.