Tag Archives: Movie Addiction

This one hits close to home…

From Cracked.com and written by Daniel Dockery:

5 Ways My Movie Collection Became An Actual Addiction

I can’t say that I agree with all of Mr. Dockery’s comments, but I will reveal something painfully personal about myself:

I’m a movie/TV show buying addict.

I’m much better now, purchasing only a few films or TV series now and again and, often, only when they’re on sale.

But my collection is so damn vast at this point and there are so many shows and movies I’ve purchased and have yet to actually watch, that it became clear to me several years ago that I had become an addict.

When I was at my worst, I would purchase at least a film -more often two or three!- a week.  At first it was to build up a collection of my favorite features and TV shows, but soon enough I had most of the works I originally wanted and started picking up new features that looked interesting.  Often, I hadn’t seen the work at all and was picking it up sight unseen.

My logic for doing so wasn’t all that bad: I didn’t catch the movie in the theaters or the TV show on first run and, when it was released to DVD or BluRay, the price to buy these works was comparable to what I’d spend going to the theater to see it or renting it (this was when Blockbuster still existed).  In other words, no big deal.

However, just as I didn’t have the time to see certain films in theaters I found I didn’t have time to watch the DVD/BluRays I bought in my spare time either.  Even now there are movies and TV series I bought literally years ago which I haven’t had the time to get to and, when I’m honest with myself, I wonder when and if I ever will.

Which makes me realize –painfully!– all the money I’ve spent on these works.

But as I said before, I’ve gotten much better.  Realizing I was buying things I might never get to has helped me slow my purchases to a crawl, as has the fact that I’ve once again focused on getting things that I absolutely loved and wanted to own.  Netflix and On Demand has helped as well.  Instead of buying films sight unseen I now put them on my cue and, more often than not, see a film and send it back and rarely feel the need to buy it as I know I’ll never get back to it again.

Ah well, live and learn!