1. First Movie in Theaters: I have heard that this was Lady and the Tramp. My parents claim I got up during the critical fight between Lady and the rats and screamed "I'll save you lady!"
2. First Movie I Remember Seeing in Theaters: Like most people, this is probably a Disney title. I genuinely remember going to see The Little Mermaid, which feels like the earliest one (I distinctly remember the scene where Ursula becomes large and fights the boat).
3. First Movie I Went to on a Date ("In the Closet" Edition): Other than a platonic date to the Prom, I have only been on one date with a girl in my whole life, and it was to of all things Fairy Tale: A True Story with Harvey Keitel & Peter O'Toole.
4. First Movie I Went to on a Date ("Out of the Closet" Edition): On the flip side, I've been to many dates with guys at the movies, with the first one being to Million Dollar Baby (unlike my first date with a girl, where that theater is still in business, both the restaurant & theater I went to on my first date with a guy are now closed).
5. First Movie I Owned on VHS: This is hard to tell, since my parents would have "family" editions of movies, but this is either White Fang (with Ethan Hawke) or Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
6. First Movie I Owned on DVD: This is easier-it was a "family" copy, but as the only DVD player in the house at the time was my computer, I'm counting it-The Sixth Sense.
7. First Movie I Owned on Blu-Ray: This is also easier, as I was out-of-college when I bought this one (a Blu-Ray player, along with a TiVo, were my first "real job" presents I bought for myself)-No Country for Old Men.
8. First Movie I Owned on 4K: First and so far only (I don't own a 4K player yet, but am planning on getting it for Black Friday)-Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
9. First TV Series I Owned: I remember mocking my brother for this "trend" when it first happened, and now I live by the idea of owning TV shows on DVD-it was Friends, and I want to say weirdly I started with Season 5.
10. First Movie I Owned on Streaming: Counter to that, I still am not wild about streaming movies, but I do own a couple of movies on streaming (and own a lot more on Vudu, but in that case it comes with the DVD)-The Queen.
11. First Movie I Walked Out Of: I don't make a habit of this, but Gomorrah (the 2008 Italian film) was so hard to follow and I'd already hit another movie that day so I skipped out about twenty minutes in and went to dinner.
12. First Movie I Saw More Than Once: When I was growing up, my brother & I would go to the movies with our mom every single Tuesday night during the summers. Since While You Were Sleeping was in town for multiple weeks, we ended up seeing it a second time (it's still one of my favorite movies and I think I'm going to watch it this week as I need a comedy).
13. First Movie I Saw 3+ Times in Theater: I've seen ten movies in theaters more than once, but the first I did this with was Titanic (which holds my personal record for most times in a theater-thrice in its first run and twice in an anniversary run).
14. First Movie I Saw 4+ Times in Theater: This would be The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which I saw all four of in its initial run. The only other movies I've seen 4 times in one theatrical run were Brokeback Mountain and Call Me By Your Name.
14. First Foreign-Language Film I Ever Saw: The first foreign-language film I can remember seeing (certainly in theaters) was Life is Beautiful. I saw it with my mom (my brother, who will read this, can correct me but I don't think he came with), and cried & cried & cried (I don't care that people hate on it-I still love this movie).
15. First R-Rated Movie I Saw: My parents were pretty strict about this, but the first R-rated movie I saw in theaters was Traffic, which might be the first R-Rated movie I saw, period. My dad took me to a late-night showing while my mom was out of town.
16. First Retro Screening: This would have been in college, and it could qualify as my first gay date but I don't since I never could tell if it was a date (that's a long story for a different day), but it was Wild Strawberries by Ingmar Bergman.
17. First Drunk Screening of a Movie: I don't do this as a rule, but it was with my friend Ali to Magic Mike (if I recall correctly, we repeated this with Fifty Shades of Grey). I distinctly remember the audience was made up of multiple other groups of "clearly drinking" straight women & gay men, and a few straight guys dragged there by their girlfriends.
18. First Movie I Saw By Myself: My mom forbade me from doing this in town (she thought it was odd, something both of us don't care about now), but I drove an hour to the nearest multiplex and saw Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
19. First Oscars Ceremony I Saw: Technically this is the 1994 Oscars, as my parents taped the ceremony and let us watch Tom Hanks & Jessica Lange, as well as the Lion King musical performances (I didn't get to see the rest as they assumed David Letterman was not child friendly). The next year I taped the ceremony & watched the whole thing, basically memorizing that ceremony after watching it for weeks after.
20. First Favorite Movie: While I would say that White Fang was the first movie I called my "favorite movie," the first time I did a Top 50 list, A Streetcar Named Desire topped it, and then was quickly supplanted by Titanic.
21. First Movie Poster I Owned: This would also be Titanic.
22. First Soundtrack I Owned: My brother bought all of the Disney soundtracks, so it wasn't that-I kind of think it was Evita, which is weirdly a movie that I've never seen, as I owned "You Must Love Me" on single, as well as later a single of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." If singles don't count...it's probably also Titanic (like many a young cinephile, I was obsessed).
23. First Celebrity Crush: This one is easy: it was Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
24. First Movie I Reviewed on This Blog: You can read it here (it's Magic Mike).
25. First Movie I Rented on Netflix: I still get Netflix discs, and I still get three at a time so this is going to be three titles, but after checking, it is...Priest, Breathless, and Shane. What a weird triple feature, but all really good movies so well done on me.
26. First Movie I Streamed on FilmStruck: I'm not letting this go (I loved FilmStruck), but it's Nights of Cabiria (which I reviewed here and is also marvelous).
27. First Best Picture Winner I Saw in Theaters: ...this is also Titanic.
28. First Best Picture Nominee I Saw in Theaters: I was debating between Babe and Apollo 13 before I realized it's clearly Beauty and the Beast.
29. First Movie I Saw in My New House: I needed to break in the house in a big way, so I made it Call Me By Your Name, a movie I'm still obsessed with a year later.
30. First Movie Star I Ever Met: I think this would have to be John Hawkes, who at the time was just a bit player that had appeared in the Rush Hour movies who had relatives near my home town (I saw him in a local production of Harvey), but of course he'd go on to become an Oscar nominee.
31. First Oscar Winner I Ever Met: Vanessa Redgrave, at a stage door after seeing Driving Miss Daisy.
32. First Movie Tradition I Had: I used to watch The English Patient every single time I broke up with a guy (indicative of my love life, I've seen that movie a lot). If we're talking only current traditions, I watch Sleepless in Seattle at least one Saturday night every single year between Thanksgiving and Christmas and remember that tradition going back as early as my first apartment.
33. First Sneak Preview I Attended: I got to see The Dark Knight several days before it premiered. They made us check our cell phones at the door, which I thought was unbelievably cool (and still do, let's be honest).
34. First (and Only) Triple Feature in Theaters: While I have done triple features at home before (my record for most movies in a weekend has stood at seven for many, many years), the only triple feature I remember doing in theaters was Still Alice, Foxcatcher, and Song of the Sea if I recall correctly (I'm not 100% on Foxcatcher, but the other two were definitely there).
35. First Movie I Saw at Least Twenty Times: I don't know where "a lot" comes into play for times you've seen a movie, but twenty feels like it's been reached. And it was Clue...I may have seen it every day for a month when we first got it, and it's still the movie I've seen the most.
36. First Movie I Saw in a Foreign Country: I could not for the life of me remember what this was, just that it was in Winnipeg, but my brother reminded me that it was Signs. The theater was cool too-first time I saw them serve pizza at a movie theater.
37. States I Have Definitely Seen a Movie in (In Theaters): I've for sure seen films in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Montana, Nebraska, California, and Wisconsin I definitely took trips on that could have resulted in a movie, but I don't have a memory of it happening.
38. First Movie I Watched on a Plane: I had never seen a TV on a plane until I was 17, and the movie was Erin Brockovich.
39. First Movie I Actively Hated: It's become something of an inside joke in my family, but The Pebble and the Penguin stands as one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen.
40. First Movie I Saw in 3-D: If I recall correctly, this wasn't Avatar but instead Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, which for some reason I ended up seeing despite having never seen the previous movies in the franchise (I remember thinking it was bizarre that Antonio Banderas & Carla Gugino basically have cameos in the picture despite being heavily featured in the advertisements).
41. First Movie Rental (I Got to Pick): This I remember distinctly-it was at the gas station, and it was Milo & Otis.
42. First Movie I Secretly Watched (Without My Parents' Permission): It was at my friend Julie's house, in her basement, and it was Home Alone.
43. First Movie I Snuck Into: I was thinking that I'd never done this, but that's not entirely true, as I saw the back half of a movie after watching Four Brothers at a dollar theater with some friends, while others in the group were watching Wedding Crashers, so the last ten minutes or so of Wedding Crashers I rejoined them in the theater. I don't condone this, but I can't deny I did it once.
44. First Outdoor Movie I Attended: I don't do this very often, but it would have been Bruce Almighty, which was a movie I saw on the lawn during my freshman year of college.
45. First Movie Marathon: I believe the first purposeful movie marathon I ever did was Lord of the Rings (watching the first two films at home followed by the third in theaters). I did this more impressively with Harry Potter for the eighth film, which remains my biggest movie marathon to date.
46. First Movie I Dressed Up For: This would be Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where I wore Harry Potter glasses and a cape.
47; First Movie I Ever Cried At: I tend to cry at a lot of movies (I don't cry much in real life, but movies get me with regularity), and I suspect this was Babe. It was certainly the first movie in theaters I remember crying at.
48. First Movie I Saw on My Birthday: This was a tradition that formed later in my life, so while I'm sure it happened earlier, I don't remember ever seeing a movie specifically as my "birthday present" until AI: Artificial Intelligence.
49. First Movie I Saw at a Film Festival: This would be Youth, which I saw as part of the Twin Cities Film Festival, and didn't really care for it.
50. And to Round It Out, the Only Film I Have Ever Owned on VHS, DVD, & Blu-Ray: ...once again, Titanic. The VHS was one of those split VHS copies that became something of a thing after Titanic came out, though I only ever owned five of them (Meet Joe Black, Gone with the Wind, and the first two Godfathers being the others).
And, Proving That I Still Have Movie Milestones Ahead, Here are Five Firsts I've Never Done:
1. See a Midnight Movie-I cannot remember seeing one, either at a retro screening or a costumed premiere. I've always wanted to, but never gotten the gumption to go.
2. Drive In Movie Theater: I don't believe we ever did this with my aunt who had one in her town, in which case I've never been to a drive-in movie theater.
3. Attend a Film Premiere: While I've been to festival screenings, I've never been to a proper film premiere, which at some point I'd love to get to try.
4. See an In-Theater Marathon: They do this for Marvel movies, as well as for other major films...maybe the next Fantastic Beasts movie I should give this a shot?
5. See a Foreign Language Film Without Subtitles: If I ever travel abroad again, I'm giving this a chance. It might sound odd, but I think it'd be fascinating to see what I'd pick up.
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