Is Watching Movies a Hobby? The Truth About Making Movies Valuable

Whether or not watching movies is considered a hobby is a debate among film enthusiasts and casual viewers alike.

Is watching movies a hobby or is it just a passive mode of entertainment?

Is Watching Movies a Hobby?

To answer this question, we first need to understand what classifies a “hobby.”

Hobby: an activity done regularly in one’s leisure time for pleasure.

Google Definition

So would watching movies be considered an activity? 

Activity: the condition in which things are happening or being done.

Google Definition

Well, a movie screening is something that is happening. But I would argue that watching that movie is a rather passive activity which is a bit of a contradiction. 

Similar to watching a magic show or a comedy show, you show up and are entertained. The most effort required is just showing up or pressing the play button.

This is why I think simply watching movies would be better defined as a pastime rather than a hobby, only because pastime has more of a passive connotation. 

No, Watching Movies Is Not a Hobby

This Redditor believes that watching movies is an “empty” hobby, an unpopular opinion that is passionately refuted in the comments of this Reddit post.

Obviously, the use of the word “empty” left a bad taste in people’s mouths because it’s undeniable that watching movies can often be an emotional, immersive, and substantiative experience for a lot of people.

I think that the real point of contention in the debate of “Is watching movies a hobby?” is the use of the word “watching” as the verb in one’s movie-related hobby. 

If you were to say that you analyze movies –

Critique Movies

Collect Movies

Create Movies

– anything with a more active verb, your movie-related activity will be less disputed as a valid hobby.

Even the verb “reading” feels like more of an active activity than “watching”. 

Yes, Watching Movies Is a Hobby

This blogger believes that watching movies is a hobby. 

They emphasize that watching movies as a pastime boosts your creativity and details how it boosted theirs, particularly as a YouTuber. 

This makes a lot of sense given that a lot of my favorite homemade YouTube vids, TikToks, and dare I say, Vines, often adopt a familiar-feeling cinematic approach to build out the humor of their content. 

Movies can also provide a mental escape and can even be good for your health in moderate quantities. 

How To Turn Watching Movies into an Active Hobby

I know that when I’ve wanted an escape, I would turn to movie marathons or binge-watching TV shows. After some time though, I would feel burnt out, even just from staring at a screen for so long. 

But once I started to make movie/TV watching a little more of an active activity, it’s become not only a way to destress from a long work week but also to create some art of my own, have more fruitful conversations with others about pop culture movies, and even a way to make a little bit of money on the side.

Movies can be so much more than something that happens to you passively.

Movies, like most art, can do more than just relax you, provide comfort, and brighten a space. 

Movies can start a conversation. And sometimes, all you need to do is respond. 

Add to the conversation.

Be an active part of building on what the movie has to offer. 

This is how you turn a passive pastime into an active hobby and even sometimes how you turn an active hobby into a fun, profitable business. 

5 Ways That Film and TV Can Be A Fantastic Hobby

How do you start making watching movies a more active hobby?

Well, you can start by keeping track of the movies you watch. 

1. Keep Track of Movies Watched Though Apps

There are several easy apps that allow you to quickly review movies from your phone like Letterboxd, TV Time, and Queue.

Using apps as a way to document your movie-watching experience is a great way to actively engage with the films you watch as well as engage in film conversations with others.

However, with apps, you’re often reliant on the apps’ functionality, longevity, and decent Wifi to sustain your hobby.

2. Use Your Own Customizable Local Documents

Using your own local document to log your movies and opinions on them is a more active approach to movie reviews which offers you a little more creativity and control on how you decide to engage with the movie.

3. Utilize Movie Review Templates

Printable movie review templates and Google Docs templates can help to personalize and customize your movie thoughts, reviews, and documentation.

They can also be a fun way for groups of people to have a uniform method of organizing their movie opinions for thoughtful, collective film discussions.

4. Start a Movie Review Journal

You can take an even more hands-on approach and start a movie journal. I ventured down this route as well and have created quite a few visual movie reviews that I’m quite pleased with. 

To make the process less daunting, I created a guided movie review journal since blank pages can sometimes be a bit intimidating. I may be biased but this is THE BEST movie review journal on Amazon for the most affordable price.

Correct me if I’m wrong (but I don’t think I am).

5. Publish Movie Reviews Online

You can also write your own full-length movie reviews and publish them on a blog of your own, a Substack, another blog publication, or even on easily accessible discussion platforms like Reddit.

Why You Should Review Movies As A Hobby

Can I just say that reflecting on a movie review and materializing your invisible cloud of thoughts into neat sentences is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world?

It’s like that feeling of deep cleaning your house, throwing out all your old clothes, vacuuming the floor, getting everything in order, and then admiring how clean and neat everything is at the end of the day. 

And this feeling is especially satisfying after a particularly bad or confusing movie. Reflecting on a movie and being able to articulate your thoughts and emotions toward the film makes the film feel a little less like a waste of time.

There are so many ways to start writing movie reviews:

You can start a Google doc like the one that I used when I started out. 

You can start organizing your thoughts with some movie review templates. 

Or you can even just have some fun writing rough drafts with some movie review generators. 

To start making money through your movie reviews, you can apply to write for some bigger film publishing sites like Taste of Cinema and ScreenRant. 

However, it may be difficult to get your foot in the door of these bigger publications due to high demand and creatively restrictive requirements for articles.

So, to get your feet wet and start publishing your reviews online without worrying about being another publication’s “perfect candidate”, you can start by publishing right on this blog.

Your opinions are welcome here and I’d love to read and publicize your movie reviews.

So, shoot me an email. Let’s publish those reviews!

Movie Blogging Is Undeniably A Hobby

…and even occasionally, a fun job.

Publishing movie reviews on a blog you create is a difficult but rewarding process.

It requires a lot of time, effort, creativity, and problem-solving.

You absolutely cannot create a good blog passively and anyone who’s started a blog will tell you that it is not as simple as it may seem.

Through a blog, you can be in control of your own movie review platform and even profit from building an audience for your reviews. 

Ever since I started movie blogging and publishing movie reviews, each movie-watching experience has become so much more profound, meaningful, and heck, even profitable.

Watching movies and binge-watching TV shows no longer feels like a draining waste of time when I create something beautiful with the experience.

I document my blogging journey here and also list all of the resources I’ve found useful throughout my years of movie blogging.

Definitely check it out if you’re more curious about the behind-the-scenes of movie blogging.

In Conclusion…

So to answer the question, “Is watching movies a hobby?”, my response would be, no, it’s more of a pastime.

However, it’s really easy and fun to make movies an active hobby by engaging more with the movie-watching experience.

This can mean, simply documenting a quick movie rating on an App or keeping a quick document in your Notes App.

It can mean keeping a colorful detailed movie journal or creating your own profitable blog.

Turning watching movies into an active hobby can be as simple or complex as you’d like. But simply watching a movie doesn’t take any agency over the experience.

You’re simply letting the movie happen to you rather than engaging with it. And that’s something anybody can do.

But you’re not just anybody. You’re a film enthusiast, a movie buff, a true movie fan.

So engage with the film and have something to show for it. I promise you, it’ll make your viewing experience so much richer.

With a little bit of effort, you can turn watching movies into a hobby that no one can deny.

What do you think? Is watching movies a hobby? Let me know in the comments below!

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Peace, love, and lots of popcorn,

IMO