Category: Movie Marathon Ideas

Suggested movie marathon movies

Someone did it: Disney Movie Marathon

Do you think you can watch 17 Disney movies in 48 hours? Ralph Jones did it and documented the experience in this article on the website Hexjam. His write-ups are entertaining*, and I enjoyed the YouTube link that illustrated Disney animation scenes recycled in multiple movies. You notice these sorts of details when you watch similar movies back to back to back to back.

It looks like he indulged in the luxury of sleep during his Disney movie watching binge. Had he read one or two of my articles on planning a Disney movie marathon, he could have learned he could have watched 15-16 movies in a mere 24 hours (Disney movies are short), and that he should have stuck to the best of the Disney Animation Studios classics (he included High School Musical and Atlantis: The Lost Empire? Really?).

Just sayin’. Am I feeling a little snobbish today? Maybe.

*Ralph uses a lot of saucy language to express his thoughts on the movies. If that isn’t your thing, you should probably move along.

Correct Marvel Movie Marathon Timeline

The nice folks at CNet have put together an excellent infographic on the correct order to watch 19 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and TV shows. Because, really, if you don’t watch the storyline in the correct fictional chronological order, how could you possibly follow any of the plot?

It’d be like watching the Star Wars episodes IV-VI before I-III….oh wait. It’d be like reading the Bible out of order (don’t miss a single page of Leviticus and its dietary rules action!)…oh wait. It’d be like watching The Matrix: Revolutions before The Matrix… actually that would be quite bad. Don’t do that.

Anyway, enjoy nerding out on this infographic. I know I did!

Marvel movies and TV in order

Movie Marathon 2015

I’ve finished the schedule for Movie Marathon 2015! We are following the usual theme of:

  1. Movies at least one of the hosts have never seen before
  2. Movies that the hosts want to see, or have heard we “should” see

We’ll be bringing back kid-friendly zones Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  From 6:30 PM to 10:00 PM Saturday, we have The Muppets and Bolt. From 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM Sunday, we have The Lion King and Mulan. From 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM Sunday, we also have Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which would be suitable for older kids.

Movie Marathon 2015 Schedule Overview

Start TimeEnd TimeTitleYearRuntime
12:00 PM02:10 PMThunderball1965130 min.
02:30 PM04:12 PMBringing Up Baby1938102 min.
04:15 PM06:06 PMRebel Without a Cause1955111 min.
06:30 PM08:13 PMThe Muppets2011103 min.
08:15 PM09:51 PMBolt200896 min.
10:30 PM12:10 AMTo Have and To Have Not1944100 min.
12:15 AM01:59 AMThe French Connection1971104 min.
02:00 AM03:39 AMKung Fu Hustle200499 min.
03:45 AM05:13 AMThe Wicker Man197388 min.
05:15 AM07:03 AMOn the Waterfront1954108 min.
07:05 AM09:02 AMNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind1984117 min.
09:05 AM10:34 AMThe Lion King199489 min.
10:34 AM12:02 PMMulan199888 min.
12:02 PM12:02 PMFinish

Movie Marathon 2015 Details

Thunderball (1965)

Action | Adventure | Thriller – Rotten Tomatoes score: 85%

James Bond heads to The Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Comedy | Romance – Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%

While trying to secure a $1 million donation for his museum, a befuddled paleontologist is pursued by a flighty and often irritating heiress and her pet leopard “Baby.”

Rebel without a Cause (1955)

Drama – Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%

A rebellious young man with a troubled past comes to a new town, finding friends and enemies.

The Muppets (2011)

Comedy | Family | Musical – Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%

A Muppet fanatic with some help from his two human compatriots must regroup the Muppet gang to stop a avaricious oil mogul from taking down one of their precious life-longing treasures.

Bolt (2008)

Animation | Adventure | Comedy – Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%

The canine star of a fictional sci-fi/action show that believes his powers are real embarks on a cross country trek to save his co-star from a threat he believes is just as real.

To Have and To Have Not (1944)

Horror | Mystery | Thriller – Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%

During WWII, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a Free French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sexy lounge singer.

The French Connection (1971)

Action | Crime | Thriller – Rotten Tomatoes score: 98%

A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

Action | Comedy | Crime – Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%

In Shanghai, China in the 1940s, a wannabe gangster aspires to join the notorious “Axe Gang” while residents of a housing complex exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf.

The Wicker Man (1973)

Horror | Mystery | Thriller – Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%

A police sergeant is sent to a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl whom the townsfolk claim never existed. Stranger still are the rites that take place there.

On the Waterfront (1954)

Crime | Drama – Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%

An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Animation | Adventure | Fantasy – Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%

Warrior/pacifist Princess Nausicaä desperately struggles to prevent two warring nations from destroying themselves and their dying planet.

The Lion King (1994)

Animation | Adventure | Drama – Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%

Lion cub and future king Simba tests his limits, supported by his family, but sometimes gets in over his head. 

Mulan (1998)

Animation | Adventure | Family – Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%

To save her father from death in the army, a young maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China’s greatest heroines in the process.

TV Series Marathons

Nielsen Top Ten put together two handy infographics to tell you just how long it would take to watch various TV series in one sitting. TV series marathons may be a little off-topic for this weblog, but the 15-day Dr. Who Marathon is pretty impressive. Comic book guy had this one right…

Simpsons Dr. Who Marathon

The first list showed how long it would take to watch some popular shows.

Neilsen's TV Series Marathons Part 1Then, internet nerds complained that their favorite TV show wasn’t featured on this list, and so Nielsen created a second list.
Binge-Shows-Part-2-960x1617

Whew – 10 straight days of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit would be a whole lot crime busting. Still, watching Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead is a lot like watching very long movie series. Perhaps I should start up a 24hourTVmarathon.com weblog?

Movie Marathon Of Flops

We all love catastrophic failures, and Hollywood flops can single-handedly lose hundreds of millions of dollars, bankrupt entire studios, and ruin prestigious careers. A movie marathon of flops would be like watching a train transporting a load of fireworks smashing into an orphanage located on an active volcano during a Sharknado. You know you couldn’t look away.

However, just because a movie wasn’t a commercial success doesn’t mean it isn’t good. In fact, the most spectacular flops have great production values simply based on the sheer amount of money spent on them. I think a movie marathon of flops has some real untapped potential. It is going to be an entertaining spectacle one way or another.

However, to put together a decent flop movie marathon schedule, the key thing we need to know is: how much money was lost in bringing this cinematic experience to you? The answer is harder to figure out than you might think. Hollywood has strange and secretive accounting practices, which are only amplified when they just lost a ton of money.

So, knowing that the best we can do is form an educated guess, I found some decent flop lists (with financial figures) on Wikipedia, CNBC, the the-numbers.com. Each list disagreed with the other in terms of the movies on the list, and how much money was lost, and one of them wasn’t adjusted for inflation. So, what I did was take an average based on the numbers from each list (when available), and adjusted for inflation as needed. That sounds a lot like science, in that math is involved.

And so, I came up with a list (dollar amounts are in 2014 dollars).

Top 20 Movie Flops, Based on Total Loss

MovieYearEstimated Loss
Mars Needs Moms2011-$144,439,582
Cuttthroat Island1995-$142,147,256
The Alamo2004-$134,784,016
John Carter2012-$133,289,640
The 13th Warrior1999-$133,127,431
The Adventures of Pluto Nash2002-$130,429,259
Sahara2005-$127,167,887
The Fall of the Roman Empire1964-$126,417,784
47 Ronin2013-$126,158,267
The Lone Ranger2013-$119,173,592
Town and Country2001-$115,352,672
How do you know?2010-$115,215,810
Heaven’s Gate1980-$112,748,057
Final Fantasy: The Spirits within2001-$108,125,697
Speed Racer2008-$106,054,234
Jack the Giant Slayer2013-$105,813,215
RIPD2013-$94,250,663
Inchon1982-$89,870,942
Treasure Planet2002-$83,833,389

Now, this is a fine list, but we have a 24-hour movie marathon format to satisfy. So, to get the most flop in the least amount of time, we’d want to schedule the biggest losers according to how much money they lost per minute of movie. That results in the following list.

Top 20 Movie Flops, Based on Dollars Lost Per Minute

MovieYearLoss / Minute
Mars Needs Moms2011-$1,641,359
The Adventures of Pluto Nash2002-$1,372,940
The 13th Warrior1999-$1,305,171
Cuttthroat Island1995-$1,146,349
Town and Country2001-$1,109,160
47 Ronin2013-$1,069,138
Sahara2005-$1,025,547
Final Fantasy: The Spirits within2001-$1,020,054
John Carter2012-$1,009,770
The Alamo2004-$983,825
RIPD2013-$981,778
How do you know?2010-$952,197
Jack the Giant Slayer2013-$928,186
Treasure Planet2002-$882,457
The Lone Ranger2013-$799,823
Solider1998-$797,095
Speed Racer2008-$785,587
The Fall of the Roman Empire1964-$672,435
Gigli2003-$644,311

Picking off the top of this list, and making a few creative choices along the way to create a decent schedule, I give you….

The World’s Best Movie Marathon of Flops

Start TimeTitleRuntimeLoss / Min
12:00 PMMars Needs Moms88 min.-$1,641,359
01:45 PMThe Adventures of Pluto Nash95 min.-$1,372,940
03:30 PMThe 13th Warrior102 min.-$1,305,171
05:15 PMCuttthroat Island124 min.-$1,146,349
07:30 PMTown and Country104 min.-$1,109,160
09:15 PM47 Ronin118 min.-$1,069,138
11:15 PMFinal Fantasy: The Spirits within106 min.-$1,020,054
01:15 AMJohn Carter132 min.-$1,009,770
03:30 AMThe Alamo137 min.-$983,825
06:00 AMHow do you know?121 min.-$952,197
08:15 AMJack the Giant Slayer114 min.-$928,186
10:15 AMTreasure Planet95 min.-$882,457
12:00 PMFinish

This movie marathon cost the studios an astounding $1,472,716,233 (that’s almost $1.5 BILLION dollars – adjusted for inflation) of their own money. These movies lost an average of $1,118,384 per minute of runtime. Awesome!

So hey – the next time you complain about movie ticket prices – remember – sometimes the studios take one for the team too.