How do you alphabetize your movie collection?

[Vanyel]

I use the program "Movie Collector" to keep track of my DVDs, BluRays, and movies I bought and watch from the cloud.

Movie Collector uses a pretty strict way of alphabetizing, but not always the way I was taught. Sometimes movies That start with "The", "A", or "An" are sorted in the T's and A's respectively. Luckily, you can go into the movie details and change that so movies like "The King and I" is in the K's and A League of their Own is in the L's.

Now for my questions so I can better organize my movies.

Movies whose name begins with a number like "12 Angry Men", those should go before all the movies beginning with an "A" right? But if the number is spelled out like in "Eight Men Out" that should go in the E's right?

A movie series like the James Bond series, should be grouped together too right? Starting with "Dr. No" and continuing by release date?

I put all the Batman movies together starting with Batman through to The Dark Knight Rises since they are all Batman movies, and they are in order of release. Currently "Batman vs. Superman" is right after DKR. But should it go with the Superman movies, which are also together from "Superman: The Movie" to "Man of Steel" since BvS was to be a sequel to MoS? Things get more complicated when you add in TV series, like "Smallville." I put it before MoS, since I don't have "Superman Returns." Does that seem right?

Star Trek is even more complicated. The series are in in starting with TOS and ending with "Enterprise" DVDs are listed before Blurays (I have both the TNG DVDs and BluRays). Then the movies are listed by release date The Motion Picture to Beyond with the directors cut of TWoK right after the theatrical version of TWoK. Do you think that works?

Star Wars movies are listed by the in universe timeline so the prequels come before the original trilogy, and "The Force Awakens" is currently the last movie in that list. Rogue One will go between the prequels and the original trilogy. Should they follow the in universe time line or be like the Star Trek movies and go by release date?

So that's how I list my movies, both alphabetically and in universe timeline (So Fantastic Beasts will be listed before the Harry Potter movies since they are in the same universe.) The only movies that aren't bunched together even though they are in the same universe are The Hobbit movies and TLotR movies.

I think I went all over the place with this, and for that, I'm sorry. But, if you can understand what I wrote, does my cataloging and alphabetizing scheme work? Any ideas to make it better?

 

[Miss Chicken]

I was a library technician so I tend to follow the AACR2 (Anglo-American Classification Rules) so that means I ignore 'a', 'an' and 'the'.

However in truth I am rather lazy about keeping my personal video and book collections in proper order. Near enough tends to be good enough for me.

 

[Finn]

I don't

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't go by genre, only title. Although I do keep BluRays separate from regular DVDs.

As far as titles go: Numbers first, then letters. And within the 'number' framework, I go in numerical order. (For instance: 61*, then 300, then 2001)

As for Trek: Prime Timeline TV, then Prime movies, then Kelvin Timeline

(SW doesn't really count since I bought the set of PT & OT blu-rays, which all come in one big box. Later I got TFA from iTunes)

 

[SPCTRE]

my movie "collection" is floating invisibly, transcendentally in the cloud, ordered by a maddening web of algorithms

 

[DimesDan]

I don't

Same here. There is no rhyme or reason as to how our DVD, BluRays and books are organised.

 

[Relayer1]

Same here. There is no rhyme or reason as to how our DVD, BluRays and books are organised.

This.

 

[shivkala]

I'm pretty much like Vanyel, in that I do alphabetize my collection, but I do so more by groups. Despite their actual title, all Batman movies go together. Batman: Year One goes first, then Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (I never did get around to buying The Dark Knight Rises, but if I did, it would go after The Dark Knight).

Discussing this, I realize though I don't own many MCU films, they are all separated. Iron Man is with the "I's," Avengers with the "A's," and Guardians of the Galaxy is with the "G's." This is further complicated by the fact that I only own Captain America: Winter Soldier on digital.

For the X-Men movies, I go by the order they were released: X-Men, X2, Wolverine: X-Men Origins (for the record, I did not buy this one, it was given to me), and then X-Men: First Class (Days of Future Past is only on digital).

Starting of my collection are 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. I don't own any other movies with numbers in their titles.

And the whole thing is in alphabetical order, regardless of genre, which might be why the MCU films are not categorized together.

It makes finding movies easier. And despite the struggle of finding room in an already stuffed DVD shelf, putting a movie in the order for the first time is an extra bit of enjoyment I get from buying physical media.

 

[RandyS]

Same here. There is no rhyme or reason as to how our DVD, BluRays and books are organised.

And here. I typically arrange mine by subject.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I'm obsessed with my BluRay and DVD collection. My wife makes fun of me for it, I think it comes from all the years of working at Blockbuster Video. I lived for updating the Wall when new releases came out. So I also start with numbers than in Alphabetical order. I also group movies together, ie all Batman movies together and they are grouped by release date. So Batman 89 to Dark Knight Rises. I have Man of Steel and Batman V Superman together. I never buy movies in Box Sets because you're always in danger of them releasing another movie and then you're stuck with having different styles. I however often buy different releases of movies ie, The Lord of the Rings. I have it on DVD in both Pan & Scan and Widescreen in Regular and Extended. I also have it on BluRay in Regular and Extended. So I have four version of Lord of the Rings right now.

 

[Kemaiku]

Genre mostly, horror, action, comedy, animated etc then by era really.

 

[Tallguy]

Mostly alphabetical. Numbers I'm meh on. I think I have 2001 under T. Bond is under B and is in order of release. Same for Indiana Jones (Raiders is first). Star Trek is ordered by TOS (TAS, movies), TNG (movies), DS9, VOY, ENT, JJ. Star Wars is 1-7, any "non saga" movies come at the end.

Hmmm, anything else? I used to have my Pixar movies by release date in its own section. Now they're scattered by title.

 

[Kelthaz]

I just let Netflix sort my movies for me. I don't own any physical movies.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I sort mine by how much Gary Busey they contain.

 

[DimesDan]

And here. I typically arrange mine by subject.

So there is some rhyme or reason then.

 

[auntiehill]

Alphabetically, in proper library fashion. However, sequels go in numerical order.

 

[Relayer1]

I sort mine by how much Gary Busey they contain.

Is the correct answer !

ie, The Lord of the Rings. I have it on DVD in both Pan & Scan and Widescreen in Regular and Extended.

I didn't realise it had been released in pan and scan ! I've got both the theatrical and extended Blurays...

 

[John Clark]

I try to keep them in mostly alphabetical order, but it can be a little awkward sometimes. (Given shelf space, moving everything just because there is a new "A" title can be a pain).

Titles beginning with The and A usually go under their main title (A Time to Kill would go under T)

That said, all the Bonds are together, The Trek series are in Era order, but the movies are in release date.

(I also keep tv series and movies separate). Everything is recorded in a dvd profiler program.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

Our DVD collection is so large that I had to come up with my own system that separates by SOME genres, because it proved impossible to store all our DVDs in less than three rooms.

"Television Series" Has a set of shelves, but "British Mystery/Drama TV" and "Major Science Fiction Television/Film Series" have separate shelves, except "Just Doctor Who" has its own couple of shelves.

"Animated Family Movies," "Christmas Films," "Other Family Films," and "Musicals" all have their own separate shelves, as does "Animated Films Not Suitable For Small Children." But we also have shelves for (because J demanded them) Joss Whedon productions, and "Movies and TV Shows Ron Perlman Stars In."

In hindsight, it's actually a completely insane organization that probably only makes sense to us. If I had a bigger house with sufficient shelving, I would trash the whole system and start over. And I really probably should get the whole collection insured.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Is the correct answer !


I didn't realise it had been released in pan and scan ! I've got both the theatrical and extended Blurays...