What films have you seen the most in the cinema - especially first run?

OK, a thread on movies, not on movie websites that are disappearing .

This is a thread that comes up often on FG but I don't recall ever seeing it here (could just be my bad memory or the various times I've been off the boards, apologies if I'm forgetting a recent thread someone started) and I figured why not? Especially because people here are a little more likely to actually discuss why they would go to the cinema multiple times for the same film, and also because many here grew up in the pre-video days when that was the only option if you loved a film and wanted to be sure to see it again. So I'd love little lists - AND some insight into the reasons, what made you go again and again. If you worked in a cinema and actually sat down and watched things straight through for free 100x times, share that as well. Let's have a thread to help close out this site about how much we really love film!

FILMS I SAW MOSTLY OR ENTIRELY FIRST-RUN

Star Wars (1977) - this came out when I was 11, the perfect age, and as I was already a nascent sci-fi/comics/fantasy buff, and as it played literally for years, well...

7 times first run I think, around another 5 at various times in the 80s and 90s in retrospectives/revivals, including the 1997 "Special Edition"

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - similar to the above in terms of my reaction. I'm pretty sure I saw this 5 times first-run and another 3 or 4 in later years.

E.T. (1982) - 5 times first run, once later I believe. I was a very emotional and romantic boy and young man. I guess I still am.

in 1983 I went off to college, and started seeing more and a wider variety of films, but no longer had the time or desire to keep going back to the same one over and over - at least for a while

Defending Your Life (1991) 7 times first run; like many of the films that follow, a mostly emotional reaction; I can say that this and many other films that are inspirational in a broad sense - get off your ass and live your life! - have inspired me to go back to the cinema often, if nothing else

Unforgiven (1992) - Clint, 'nuff said. 6 times first run; the western that really got me into westerns

The Bridges of Madison County (1995) - Clint again, 5 times, only once with my then-girlfriend who I was in the process of breaking up with. She wasn't much of a romantic (one of our many problems) and while she liked this it didn't really affect her. The rain sequence near the end is still absolutely gut-wrenching to me.

Dead Man (1996) - 9 times first run, 1 more a couple of years later at a retro. Still my record. My favorite film for a good many years and one that still speaks to me about genre and about America in ways that few films do. It played for months in Chicago, I think the only city in the US where it did well.

A Brighter Summer Day (1991) - 4 times between 1997-2000, not quite "first run" technically, but this never had a commercial US release until just a couple of years ago (and that was minimal). In Chicago though the Film Center of the Art Institute held their own print of it for a while and they showed it several times.

La La Land - 5 times so far. Pure joy, and I need it. Also a film that will be vastly diminished on the small screen, with no audience but me.

There are innumerable films I saw 2 or 3 times in the cinema as well - most recently Cloud Atlas and Silver Linings Playbook each twice.

I've probably seen It's a Wonderful Life more times in the cinema than any of these, because I used to go at Christmas every year, sometimes twice. Probably around 15 times total. But obviously not first run.


Share some of your memories!

Here's to the fools who dream