PARASITE is the first movie to join the 3 Million Watched Club on Letterboxd

PARASITE’ is the first movie to join the 3 Million Watched Club on Letterboxd.

Despite its vastness, there remain films that are so eminently popular among film fans, that they find themselves logged as being viewed over a million times, some of them even two million, in the case of Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 Best Picture-winning thriller Parasite. Among the many films in this ranking, there exist those that are both so incredibly popular and achieve an incredibly high rating from fans, with classics such as The Godfatherto recent sensations such as 2022’s Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The milestone feels notable: With more than 4.4 million monthly visitors as of 2022, Letterboxd has become an influential cultural pillar — the producers of the 2023 Oscars even teamed up with the service to raise awareness of the telecast (and siphon the site’s cred with the younger generation). A movie like Parasite garnering that much attention on the platform, driving so many users to praise the film in their own ways, represents the crafting of a new canon that generations to come may look to for cinematic guidance. It’s a grand tradition.

Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is a talented young drummer looking to propel himself into the realm of virtuosity. He falls under the ruthless tutelage of Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), an unconventional, aggressive and even abusive instructor, who pushes Andrew beyond his breaking point, forcing him to choose between greatness and his very humanity.

There’s always been A Big List for budding cinephiles to hold up as a Bible. In the pre-internet age, the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound top 100 films of all time list played that role for many — and with updates occuring every 10 years, it remains a source of inspiration for film-watchers. In 2022, a new cabal of film critics cast votes to name Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles the greatest film of all time, with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story, and Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love rounding out a top five. Currently, none of those films crack Letterboxd’s current top-rated list.

In the 1990s, the American Film Institute’s “100 Years… 100 Movies” may have been that monolith of must-watch homework. Updated in 2007, the list cements the usual suspects from the U.S. as all-timers; Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Casablanca, Raging Bull, and Singin’ in the Rain are the top five. This being the ’90s, the list was printed in tons of magazines so it could be easily ripped out and taken to Blockbuster. Simpler times.