The 50,000 Movie Challenge

[Frantic Canadian]

Hi all!

I stumbled across this thread the other day when using Google to try and see if I could find what number 51,000 was, as it's still one that evades me. I accidentally tried Googling number 50,000 instead and discovered a site where somebody inquired if anybody had tried to compile a complete list of these numbers. Somebody replied that a "very eager fan" was attempting to do it and shared a link to my, now deleted, Google Doc, and a link to this thread. I was surprised to see that there was still some interest in this crazy little challenge of mine so I thought I'd come back and update everyone on my progress.

I have to say, this challenge is so much easier now than it was when I first started. I have since discovered the MPA's (formerly the MPAA) site, which is extremely helpful for films released after 1968, and the AFI's site, for pre-1968 films. I stopped using the IMDB, for the most part, because I discovered that a lot of the numbers were actually wrong. They are still helpful though when it comes to pre-code films that have been re-released in the early days of the new code system. I've also stopped checking the end credits for numbers because, as you've seen if you've been following this thread from the start, sometimes, somehow, the numbers listed are actually incorrect as well. And sometimes the same number can be listed during the end credits of multiple films.

So, where do I currently stand? Well, my list is still nowhere near complete. As you can imagine compiling a complete list that dates all the way back to 1934 is a long and arduous process. Not to mention that there are still a lot of numbers that appear to not have been assigned yet. I'm not talking about current numbers either. I'm talking about numbers that should have been assigned years ago.

As for where I currently stand in terms of items that I have actually seen and have been checked off? My current total is 5,479. That is still not an accurate number, however. I've still got about 9 years worth of viewing logs to go through. Not to mention that there's going to be movies that I haven't seen in decades that are going to be checked off as I continue to go through the MPA's and the AFI's sites to continue to compile my list. Something that is also making this interesting/challenging, is that apparently, according to the MPA's site, once the rating classification system was put into place in 1968 they decided to start their numbers from scratch. At least when it came to films that would play in grindhouse theaters. I'm not sure how long this was in place for but the highest number I currently have for those is 1714, which was assigned to an X-rated film called "Bel Ami". The MPA's site lists it as a 1979 release while the IMDB lists it as a 1976 release.

In case anybody was wondering the highest number currently assigned is 52,778. The highest number I have seen is 52,557, which belongs to "Guns Akimbo". The lowest number I have seen is 8, which belongs to "Paris Interlude". Tomorrow, however, I will be watching the Shirley Temple movie "Baby Take A Bow". That will be my new lowest number as its number is 3. It was also assigned the number 33,640 when it was re-released back in 1995, so I'll be able to tick off two numbers with one single movie. All of Shirley's starring vehicles, from 1934 - 1940, were re-released in 1994/95 and thus assigned a second number. That is going to be very helpful in trying to complete this challenge.

 

[CJ121997]

[font=Raleway,Sans-Serif]If you want Number to movies I have them. I can't post them here because their are to many but most from you list can be found Here IMDB.com just type in the movie click Parental Guide and it's their I submitted more 10,000 numbers all confirmed if you can't find the Number let me know or it will show up their at some point [/font]

I did that task almost every weekend, particularly during free time since last year. What I did was the submission of more than 5,000 numbers, including the correction of several mistakes and missing numbers that was uncredited in many released films. Until now, I continue to fill up the info in the certification section on that site.

 

[CJ121997]

And speaking of AFI, that site might not be a reliable source for finding certificate numbers for pre-1968 films because on that site, not all films released during the PCA period have the certificate numbers and some of these numbers may be wrong. And also, not all of these films (including shorts) are listed there.

 

[Frantic Canadian]

And speaking of AFI, that site might not be a reliable source for finding certificate numbers for pre-1968 films because on that site, not all films released during the PCA period have the certificate numbers and some of these numbers may be wrong. And also, not all of these films (including shorts) are listed there.

While it's true that they don't have a complete listing of PCA's for every pre-1968* film I fail to see how you could see them as an unreliable source. The American Film Institute is an extremely well established film organization. I'm also curious as to why you believe some of the PCA's listed on their site may be wrong.

*They only list feature-length films that run for forty minutes or longer. So you won't find any theatrical shorts, including movie serials, listed there.

 

[CJ121997]

And speaking of AFI, that site might not be a reliable source for finding certificate numbers for pre-1968 films because on that site, not all films released during the PCA period have the certificate numbers and some of these numbers may be wrong. And also, not all of these films (including shorts) are listed there.

While it's true that they don't have a complete listing of PCA's for every pre-1968* film I fail to see how you could see them as an unreliable source. The American Film Institute is an extremely well established film organization. I'm also curious as to why you believe some of the PCA's listed on their site may be wrong.

*They only list feature-length films that run for forty minutes or longer. So you won't find any theatrical shorts, including movie serials, listed there.

Yeah. Only in terms of finding PCA numbers, I can see that the source might be unreliable due to incomplete listing of these numbers while the site is well-known for cataloging films released in the first 100+ years. I'll say that the site is partially reliable.

 

[MPAA Challenger]

As for where I currently stand in terms of items that I have actually seen and have been checked off? My current total is 5,479.

Welcome back, FC.

My current total is 6720, of which 520 are shorts.

Like you and others, I've spent years delving into the numerous mysteries surrounding the MPA certificate numbers. Their own website is full of errors, duplicates and many, many omissions, and I know this because I've extracted every single number they have, combing their database through succesive thorough searches, year by year, from 1968 to the present.

As for the 1934-1968 numbers, those are even shakier due to the lack of any bonafide official source for them. Still, I keep compiling my own list and trying to fill the numerous gaps, but I'm not optimistic about the chances of actually getting it done, by me or anyone else, in my lifetime.

 

[Movieman53000]

I Have 42,613 Numbers. If anyone wants a copy of the list I can post it Here as a Excel file. I'm currently submitting them to the IMDB & I submitted over 20000 Numbers from my list. let me know if you want the list. If anyone has more than what I have I would love to see it. That's 42613 of 52778. I need less than 11,000 numbers

 

[CJ121997]

As for the 1934-1968 numbers, those are even shakier due to the lack of any bonafide official source for them.

As I pointed out, there is no official source for these numbers from that era unlike MPA's site, which includes numbers for films released from 1968 until today, including corrections to mistakes (duplicates and so on) from some released films. Some films (including shorts) from 1934-68 have duplicate numbers.

 

[Frantic Canadian]

As for where I currently stand in terms of items that I have actually seen and have been checked off? My current total is 5,479.

Welcome back, FC.

My current total is 6720, of which 520 are shorts.

Like you and others, I've spent years delving into the numerous mysteries surrounding the MPA certificate numbers. Their own website is full of errors, duplicates and many, many omissions, and I know this because I've extracted every single number they have, combing their database through succesive thorough searches, year by year, from 1968 to the present.

As for the 1934-1968 numbers, those are even shakier due to the lack of any bonafide official source for them. Still, I keep compiling my own list and trying to fill the numerous gaps, but I'm not optimistic about the chances of actually getting it done, by me or anyone else, in my lifetime.

Thank you. My new current total is 5,550. But that number keeps changing every day as I go through the MPA's and AFI's sites and add new titles to my checklist. I've yet to encounter any duplicates, however. And I'm curious as to why you believe their own website is full of errors. As for omissions? I've seen the odd film listed but for some reason no certificate number included. And I've also discovered that some films may only appear if you either search for them specifically or if you search for the year they were released without including an associated rating. This is because the rating was surrendered and they decided to release the film unrated. 

Another thing, as I've previously mentioned, is that once the rating system came into effect in 1968 it appears that they decided to start from scratch with the numbers. You'll find a lot of films released between 1968 and 1979 that are like this. Most of the ones that I've come across are R and X-rated films, however I have seen some that were rated GP (1970-72's equivalent of today's PG rating). I've also come across some that were listed as unrated because they surrendered their rating, like Cannibal Holocaust for example.

Also worth noting, and including, is that while most theatrical shorts in the 1930's and 40's were given regular numbers there are quite a lot of them that were given numbers that started with the number 0. I am not sure how long this went on for but the highest number I've come across like this is 0918?. The question mark obviously denoting the fact that I couldn't make out what the final number was. The short in question, in case anyone has access to it and is able to decipher it, is a 1946 FitzPatrick Traveltalks short entitled "The Mission Trail".

 

[Movieman53000]

The AFI site is really Unreliable because I find most most titles do not have the Number Listed. Ex. Year 1967 The First 120 titles listed only 1 title had a number. I stopped after Pg. 6. The film ratings site is very reliable from 1968-2020 most title of the Number are their from number 20000-52778 I'm missing Just over 3000 numbers From 22000-52778 I'm missing little more than 2000 Numbers. If their are a lot of Numbers Unassigned than my list is just about complete. I Have 80% of the 52778 numbers. As far as shorts as concerned if I find Dups and is short i ditch the short & keep the other. I found a lot dups on a list I found & 1 was a short & the other was not so I ditched the short. I also ditch a lot serials series. This was the fist list I found on the Internet the is the members.chello list that has not been updated in more than 10 years. That list was my base list which I have heavy edited & corrected & ditch many shorts. Most of Numbers came from Film ratings. I'm trying to work with AFI site but it appears lots of Numbers are missing their. My official Number count with few dups is 42612 not including 52770-52778. No matter how many dups. I still will have no less than 79% of the nearly 53000. I only need about 2000 numbers between 22000-53000 minus Numbers between 52779-53000 which bring the total missing to less than 1,800. I believe that at least 99.9% are correct. If numbers Between 30412-30550 were not missing I would need less than 1,700 numbers. I'm missing less 100 per 1000 Number sequence with the exception of the 30000's 218 missing 23000's 105 missing. I'm hoping to find most of the missing Between 22000-53000 on FilmRatings to complete my list.

 

[Movieman53000]

It is interesting that their is list that appears that they started over but that list appears to only go up too about 2000 that ran across most of them on FilmRating & put them on separate list. I have fully completed it yet because I'v been working on the big one but list should be easy to complete. I have summited a lot of them on IMDB. You find them their. They should look like this Ex. Certificate #"0998". They only appear to up in the early 70's to mid 70's and abruptly end. The Titles are Usually Rated X or NC-17 & even GP. When I search by m/PG rating it for some reason gives me no search results but that rating does appear from time to time when searching so some of the missing Numbers may listed under that rating but FilmRating will not give search results with that Rating.

 

[Frantic Canadian]

The AFI site is really Unreliable because I find most most titles do not have the Number Listed. Ex. Year 1967 The First 120 titles listed only 1 title had a number. I stopped after Pg. 6. The film ratings site is very reliable from 1968-2020 most title of the Number are their from number 20000-52778 I'm missing Just over 3000 numbers From 22000-52778 I'm missing little more than 2000 Numbers. If their are a lot of Numbers Unassigned than my list is just about complete. I Have 80% of the 52778 numbers. As far as shorts as concerned if I find Dups and is short i ditch the short & keep the other. I found a lot dups on a list I found & 1 was a short & the other was not so I ditched the short. I also ditch a lot serials series. This was the fist list I found on the Internet the is the members.chello list that has not been updated in more than 10 years. That list was my base list which I have heavy edited & corrected & ditch many shorts. Most of Numbers came from Film ratings. I'm trying to work with AFI site but it appears lots of Numbers are missing their. My official Number count with few dups is 42612 not including 52770-52778. No matter how many dups. I still will have no less than 79% of the nearly 53000. I only need about 2000 numbers between 22000-53000 minus Numbers between 52779-53000 which bring the total missing to less than 1,800. I believe that at least 99.9% are correct. If numbers Between 30412-30550 were not missing I would need less than 1,700 numbers. I'm missing less 100 per 1000 Number sequence with the exception of the 30000's 218 missing 23000's 105 missing. I'm hoping to find most of the missing Between 22000-53000 on FilmRatings to complete my list.

AFI's site may not have a complete listing of numbers but they do have quite a lot. And every little bit helps. As for duplicates where a feature and a short have the same number? I keep both because they were both assigned a number. Even if it is the same. I have no idea why they received a duplicate number though. And if I'm not mistaken every time I've seen a duplicate where a feature and a short were assigned the same number it's always with a Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies short. I am curious as to why you ditch a lot of the serials.

 

[Frantic Canadian]

It is interesting that their is list that appears that they started over but that list appears to only go up too about 2000 that ran across most of them on FilmRating & put them on separate list. I have fully completed it yet because I'v been working on the big one but list should be easy to complete. I have summited a lot of them on IMDB. You find them their. They should look like this Ex. Certificate #"0998". They only appear to up in the early 70's to mid 70's and abruptly end. The Titles are Usually Rated X or NC-17 & even GP. When I search by m/PG rating it for some reason gives me no search results but that rating does appear from time to time when searching so some of the missing Numbers may listed under that rating but FilmRating will not give search results with that Rating.

The earliest film I've seen with the starting from scratch numbers was dated 1968 and the latest was 1979. I also wouldn't list them as starting with a zero for two reasons. First, because that's not how they appear on the MPA's site. And secondly, because back in the 30's and 40's a lot of shorts were actually given numbers that started with a zero.

 

[CJ121997]

The AFI site is really Unreliable because I find most most titles do not have the Number Listed. Ex. Year 1967 The First 120 titles listed only 1 title had a number. I stopped after Pg. 6. The film ratings site is very reliable from 1968-2020 most title of the Number are their from number 20000-52778 I'm missing Just over 3000 numbers From 22000-52778 I'm missing little more than 2000 Numbers.

I agree with you. AFI is unreliable for that reason, while the MPA's site is reliable.

And about the MPA's site, there are some numbers that are not mentioned, like the following (if I'm correct):

24763
27861
29419
31056
31883
34179
37635
38215
39989
39990
39991
39992
46302

And among others.

 

[Frantic Canadian]

The AFI site is really Unreliable because I find most most titles do not have the Number Listed. Ex. Year 1967 The First 120 titles listed only 1 title had a number. I stopped after Pg. 6. The film ratings site is very reliable from 1968-2020 most title of the Number are their from number 20000-52778 I'm missing Just over 3000 numbers From 22000-52778 I'm missing little more than 2000 Numbers.

I agree with you. AFI is unreliable for that reason, while the MPA's site is reliable.

And about the MPA's site, there are some numbers that are not mentioned, like the following (if I'm correct):

24763
27861
29419
31056
31883
34179
37635
38215
39989
39990
39991
39992
46302

And among others.

Some of those could be because the rating has been surrendered and the movie is now listed as unrated. And unfortunately, since you can't search through their site by year alone, and "unrated" is not one of the selectable ratings, you're going to either have to know exactly which titles to search for or you're going to have to stumble on to them by luck. That is, short of contacting the MPA themselves to inquire about those numbers. And even if you know what you're looking for or you stumble on to them that still doesn't guarantee that a number will be listed either. For example: If you search for the movie Kids or the movie Happiness both will show up as being unrated but neither of them include a certificate number. Other films don't even show up at all, even if they surrendered their rating, like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 for example. Also, apparently the movie Gutterballs surrendered their rating but that film isn't listed on their site either.

 

[CJ121997]

In some cases, the certificate numbers of some films on that site are different from the films' end credits. For example, the 2004 film Walking Tall is 39989 in the credits while it's 40683 on that site. The other example is Windtalkers, which is 37635 in the credits while it's 38569 on that site. These examples are original versions, not edited versions (such as director's cut or special edition).

There is a strange thing that some films are not rated but the number is included in the credits. For example, Pay The Ghost, which is 49943.

 

[Frantic Canadian]

In some cases, the certificate numbers of some films on that site are different from the films' end credits. For example, the 2004 film Walking Tall is 39989 in the credits while it's 40683 on that site. The other example is Windtalkers, which is 37635 in the credits while it's 38569 on that site. These examples are original versions, not edited versions (such as director's cut or special edition).

There is a strange thing that some films are not rated but the number is included in the credits. For example, Pay The Ghost, which is 49943.

I stopped trusting the numbers listed during the end credits years ago. They will get you nothing but a lot of doubles. And in the case of number 39360 you will find at least ten movies that have that number listed during their end credits. I'm not even exaggerating on that one. Go back through this thread and you'll see it discussed.

 

[CJ121997]

In some cases, the certificate numbers of some films on that site are different from the films' end credits. For example, the 2004 film Walking Tall is 39989 in the credits while it's 40683 on that site. The other example is Windtalkers, which is 37635 in the credits while it's 38569 on that site. These examples are original versions, not edited versions (such as director's cut or special edition).

There is a strange thing that some films are not rated but the number is included in the credits. For example, Pay The Ghost, which is 49943.

I stopped trusting the numbers listed during the end credits years ago. They will get you nothing but a lot of doubles. And in the case of number 39360 you will find at least ten movies that have that number listed during their end credits. I'm not even exaggerating on that one. Go back through this thread and you'll see it discussed.

I read through this thread and I know about these mistakes (especially duplicates) in the credits already because there are corrections provided on the MPA's site. These numbers on the examples I mentioned earlier are not duplicates but rather distinguishing numbers between the credits and that site which some numbers in the credits are not mentioned there. I used the "find" bar and search the numbers in the credits I mentioned, they're not actually there, even in the later years, implying they're not duplicates.

 

[Frantic Canadian]

In some cases, the certificate numbers of some films on that site are different from the films' end credits. For example, the 2004 film Walking Tall is 39989 in the credits while it's 40683 on that site. The other example is Windtalkers, which is 37635 in the credits while it's 38569 on that site. These examples are original versions, not edited versions (such as director's cut or special edition).

There is a strange thing that some films are not rated but the number is included in the credits. For example, Pay The Ghost, which is 49943.

I stopped trusting the numbers listed during the end credits years ago. They will get you nothing but a lot of doubles. And in the case of number 39360 you will find at least ten movies that have that number listed during their end credits. I'm not even exaggerating on that one. Go back through this thread and you'll see it discussed.

I read through this thread and I know about these mistakes (especially duplicates) in the credits already because there are corrections provided on the MPA's site. These numbers on the examples I mentioned earlier are not duplicates but rather distinguishing numbers between the credits and that site which some numbers in the credits are not mentioned there. I used the "find" bar and search the numbers in the credits I mentioned, they're not actually there, even in the later years, implying they're not duplicates.

That makes absolutely no sense. Why would one movie be given multiple numbers for the same cut? If we were talking about an old movie that was being re-released, then yes, that would happen. But there is absolutely no way that they'd give a current movie multiple numbers for the same cut. And which site are you using that you can search for a specific number? Because the MPA's site only allows you to search by film title or by a year/rating combination.

As for Pay The Ghost having a number listed during the end credits but not being rated? It's possible that the film was originally rated but they decided to just release the film unrated instead and left the number in for some reason. I know it should still show up on the MPA's site if that were the case but I can't think of any other explanation as to why a movie would have a certificate number listed during the end credits but not show up on their site.

 

[Movieman53000]

I ditch the serials for same reason I ditch the shorts. They also have dupe that Feature Length Movies.
Does any one have any of these Numbers. I found a lot movies On AFI that are missing Numbers & maybe they go with some of those from 1934

Certificate #20-43
Certificate #44-48
Certificate #60-64
Certificate #67
Certificate #76-79
Certificate #85-90
Certificate #98-103

These What I'm Missing Through the first 100 Certificate #

I Have all Submitted the first 19 Number to IMDB & IMDB pro & should be all ready be posted on Pro