How do you categorize genres and sort movies within them?

[ChunkyMonkey]

This is for those of you with very large physical movie collections.

My physical movie collection has become quite large and I am thinking of splitting them up into categories. The categories I'm thinking of are Comedy, Family Live Action, Family Animated/Anime, Mature Animated/Anime, Action/Adventure, Drama, Western, Foreign European, Foreign Asian, Romance, Horror, Music/Musical, Documentary, and possibly a couple more. Many movies cover multiple genres though and I would like to know how people here determine which genre to put movies in. Some stores classify movies made before 1960 or 1970 as a classic, unless it's animated, a musical, a Western, or a foreign film. I like to keep franchises together so if I did that it would split some of them up. If you categorize your movies, what categories do you use? If there is an action/comedy, a romance/comedy, or a sci-fi/horror movie how do you determine which genre to put the movie in? Or do you have multiple genres to cover those cases too? I have my movies sorted alphabetically except for sequels and prequels, which I put after the first movie in the franchise in the order they were released. Do you sort movies in a similar way or is there a different sorting method that you prefer?

[Malarkey Booger]

Most adored films and genres go on an aged bookshelf arranged by category. The others are sold online or stored in a closet.

[ralfy]

I usually sort by title, and then add categories in the list. From there, the list can also be resorted by category, etc.

[ynwtf]

As I've noted before, I sort movies by case color, then sub-organize by spine title font.

[Jeff]

You'd gasp if you saw how i have my collection, complete chaos, stacked ontop of each other all around the abode, but most of the Blu-rays are close to where i watch them.

[beelzebubble]

I pile them on and near my DVD player.

[crumbsroom]

Put them in the category that makes the most sense to you.


The only functional reason to organize by genre is so a bunch of similar type movies will be clumped together when you are in the mood for that type of film.


Who cares what genre they are officially a part of. It's irrelevant

[John-Connor]

A-Z

[ChunkyMonkey]

I started out by just keeping movies in alphabetical order. The main reason I have for wanting to categorize them by genre is to make it easier to find something to watch when I have company over. I like having a family friendly section for when kids want to watch something while the adults are in another room. Some people can't stand subtitles, so I want foreign movies in another section. And sometimes I have company over that only wants to watch movies in a certain genre. It would be easier to browse through just the movies in that genre than to navigate through everything I own. There are just a lot of movies that could easily go into different genres and I would rather limit genres than to create too many genre categories.

[Nausicaä]

Just types of boxes really. So all my steelbooks are together, criterion collection films together, boxes with slipcovers, a film with its sequels and so on.

No order really apart from the above. I seem to be able to remember where everything is. :)

[crumbsroom]

I started out by just keeping movies in alphabetical order. The main reason I have for wanting to categorize them by genre is to make it easier to find something to watch when I have company over. I like having a family friendly section for when kids want to watch something while the adults are in another room. Some people can't stand subtitles, so I want foreign movies in another section. And sometimes I have company over that only wants to watch movies in a certain genre. It would be easier to browse through just the movies in that genre than to navigate through everything I own. There are just a lot of movies that could easily go into different genres and I would rather limit genres than to create too many genre categories.


You don't need many categories. It sounds like you already know the reason why your breaking them up, so you can find them all together for certain occassions. Just continue to do as youre already clearly starting to do and don't over think it. The reality is, it's an impossible task to categorize films perfectly by genre, as most movies are a mix. Just put them where they make the most sense to you, and hope others can figure it out well enough if they are looking through your collection on their own.

[Sedai]

Good movies vs shit