Jerry at the Netflix Movie Watching World Championship, Update #2

Hey Movie Geeks,

Sorry that it has taken me a while to write in about the event. It was tough adjusting to the real world after spending 5 days in the glass cube set up in Times Square. Sleep has been a big priority for me although I am still a bit sleep deprived. I also wanted to be very thorough and as a result this is going to be a very epic blog post. What follows is a very detailed account of the past week of my life†¦

I want to start by sharing with you a short video from the competition.

And with that, it was all over. I lasted 68 hours 21 minutes in the glass theater watching movies. I suffered through the English Patient, the Sound of Music and Superman 2. If you include the time spent speaking with press and at the hotel (before and after), I was awake almost 75 hours. Unfortunately not long enough to win the lifetime subscription to Netflix or the $10,000. But just like Rocky, I lost and yet I kinda did win.

On Wednesday October 1st, about an hour after I sent in my post, I left for the city. I had some time before checking in to the hotel so I went to Times Square to check out the glass box. Unfortunately it was not set up yet. In fact, they didn’t start until Midnight but it was all set up by 10 am the next morning and it looked great. It was a 16 by 40 ft. glass box equipped with two large HD TV’s and an amazing surround sound setup. They had two DVD players running the films simultaneously so they could quickly switch it in case a disc skipped or froze, which did happen once. It was really a great setup for watching films, except for the constant sound of traffic and crowds screaming, as well as the distracting lights and reflections in the TV’s. It was really an awesome setup in an extremely distracting location, which I guess was part of the challenge.

After checking in to my room, we had to go down to the conference room for a meeting. They went over the general rules and told us that the contest has changed. Instead of being a cutthroat competition, there was a set time the event would end. Anyone who made it to 3 pm on Tuesday (123 hours) would win the prize. At the meeting we also find out that a documentary crew will be filmingthe entire event and would later be releasing videos online. We go around the room introducing ourselves and it immediately became apparent that this was going to be a fun adventure. At about 5:30 we all got to Virgil’s BBQ for an arranged feast courtesy of Netflix. We all started to bond as we enjoyed various spiced meats and side dishes. Not exactly the perfect meal before a competition like this or any type of endurance contest but it was delicious nonetheless.

We head back to the Sofitel and right to our rooms. Unfortunately we cannot sleep yet because we have to go up to room 2202 to pick up our Netflix branded track suits and do our intro interview for the documentary crew. Due to several delays and because I took a hit for the team, I agreed to go last and my interview did not start till after 10. I got to meet the host, Gavin McInnes, who was hilarious and definitely makes for an “interesting† interviewer. The next morning I actually received a phone call before the event from Chris from Netflix who wanted to assure me that a majority of the interview will never see the light of day and if I am worried about anything specifically to let him know and he will make sure it is not released. I really had no problem with any of it, as long as it is not taken out of context so hopefully we will see some it released in the future.

After the interview, I get back to my room and lounge around a bit. I turn on the TV and watch Forrest Gumpand finally get to bed about 11. Well, I was lying in bed trying to sleep but I just couldn’t. I struggled until about 12:30 but then I woke up at 2 am. I bounced in and out of sleep for the rest of the night until about 7:30 am when I just couldn’t sleep anymore. I originally planned on sleeping from 11-9 but that unfortunately didn’t work out. I really should have taken some sleeping pills or at least a few shots of Nyquil PM.

After meetingin the lobby at 10:30, we began our March to Times Square. Upon arriving at the glass box, we all marveled at how amazing it turned out. I couldn’t wait to start but first we had to speak to the press. I, along with Jose Feliciano and Matt Raub, were all picked to be in the competition based on our videos from the Facebook contest. Since we were the nobodies, most of the interviewers focused on the other competitors. Crazy Legs Conti, a competitive eating champion, from New York was a big crowd pleaser and an all around great guy. Cheryl Jones broke the record back in 2003 when Netflix had a toned down version of this competition. Jeff Jones won $250,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Movie Edition. Claudia Wavra broke the record 3 times prior to this event and Suresh Joachim held 33 world records and broke about 55.

They began the opening ceremony at about 11:30 am and at exactly noon they began the first film. We started with Iron Man. I barely focused on the film and found myself more concerned about looking away from the screen but it eventually became very natural. In fact, I still stare directly at the screen when watchingthe TV in fear of taking my eyes off and being disqualified. We followed with Best In Show, Ghostbusters, Inside Man and a great B-movie, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. Then we got our first true test, The English Patient. We are allowed to talk during the films so we all got through it by MST3K’ingit. In fact we used that technique a lot, even the good films if they were moving too slowly. We get a few solid action flicks to last us the night but in the morningwe are faced with another test. Only this test isn’t a film but fitness guru Richard Simmons who paid us a visit during two of our breaks. We exercised with him for most of the
break, which was followed by a lecture on eating healthy foods. One of the highlights of the week was watching Richard Simmons yell at Jose for eating M&M’s. Then we sit down and watch the next film. A Night At The Opera starring the Marx Brothers. We lose Matt Raub before the credits end.

The competition continues. Jeff Jones drops out at about 4 hours later after beginning hallucinations at only 28 hours in. Crazy Legs Conti makes it to 33 hours before bowingout himself during the end credits of Fletch, a film he suggested for the competition. It’s more than a full day until the next person is bounced. Jose Feliciano is asked to leave at 4:41 am Sunday morning after succumbing to sleep. This was especially hard on me since we were the “dynamic duo† of the box. We were the two amateurs who helped each other stay awake. We had a high 5 technique and would tell jokes to keep each other up. Every musical that came our way became a duet for the two of us. Singing, it turns out, is a great way to stay awake during a film. Everyone standingoutside during West Side Story got to see us belting out “I Feel Pretty.† I last almost 4 hours after Jose but I am called out at 8:21 Sunday morning. I technically did not fall asleep but my eyes
were closed for too long. I apparently took a 20 second blink. I was awake when they called me out but I did not fight it because I knew I wouldn’t make it much more anyway. In case you are wondering, I got out on Dave. It is probably best that I got out at that time because I had apparently been hallucinating as well. Only rather than seeing dogs, like Jeff Jones did, I had a 5-minute conversation with a person who apparently was not there.

I’m proud to have made it as far as I did. For a while, I really thought Braveheart was going to take me down. It’s a good film but not when you have a full bladder and an hour and a half still to go. Somehow I made it, through to the end credits but then I fought my way to the porta-potty. After I was booted out, I had to wait for the documentary crew to arrive to film that exit interview that’s embedded at the top of this post. When being taken back to my room, I overheard the room number that Jeff Jones was in so I paid him a visit before going to bed. I said my goodbyes to him and his father and then made my way to my room. I made some calls and sent some texts to inform friends and family that I was out and then I took a 6-hour nap. I woke up to the maid trying to get in my room. I checked my phone and found out Cheryl Jones got out 2 hours after me. I knew Jeff was gone and figured they put her in his room. I went down to the room and sure
enough she was staying there. We decided to check on Suresh and Claudia and then get some dinner. We were the only two contestants that did not go home yet since Jose had left while I was sleeping. Apparently, they could not reach him by phone when he had to leave for his plane and they had to go in his room to shake him awake.

This was when I started to really feel like a minor celebrity. We went to show our support and were allowed to talk to the final contestants for a little bit. I also spent some time talking with the crowd that was gathered around the box. I even took some of the Netflix flyers the street team was handing out and did some street promotion. I must have talked to at least 200 people in that short amount of time. Some even asked to take pictures with them. Afterwards, I went with Cheryl to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for dinner and we were interrupted at about 10 times from curious people. I was wearing my Netflix competition jacket, which is bright red so I was pretty easy to spot. We were so popular there, they even comped our dessert. (If you ever go there make sure you get the Alabama Mud Pie) It was great being able to look at our food for the first time in 3 days. I was reminded of the old Seinfeld bit that the worst part of being blind would not being able
to see if bugs were in your food.

The next day I woke up after a decent 7 hours of rest and met Cheryl in the lobby. We went to show some more support for the last two competitors, still going strong. We went to lunch but then went back to the box. After Cheryl left, I stayed behind still talking the competitors through the films. I jumped back and forth from Suresh to Claudia depending on who wanted/needed to talk. I was about to leave when Annie came on and Claudia asked me to stay for it. I stayed through the whole film, singing off key to all the songs. I finally left and for the first time got to go home. I got home just after midnight and was in bed by 1. Rather than catch up on the many hours of sleep I had missed, I woke up at about 6:30 and caught a 7:30 bus back to the city. It was the last day of the competition and I wanted to be there for as much of it as possible.

I arrived just as Miracle was ending and I could tell they were both tired. I was also told that they don’t want me or anyone else talking to them for the last few movies because Guinness wants them to do it on their own. So while they knew I was there, I spent some more time with the crowd outside. I also spent some time at the second TV, which no one was watching, since they were showing Clerks. It was the only film I suggested that they chose but it was not even on the original list. It was a nice surprise for me when I got there. Afterwards Susan Sarandon stopped by to deliver the final film, Thelma & Louise. I got to speak with her briefly and she said she was very impressed with my 68 hours. She spoke with some press and then left soon after. We then settled down to watch Caddyshack. About halfway through at 12:24 pm, we all cheered as Sureshand Claudia broke the world record. They put on Thelma & Louise just to add some padding. The press was
allowed inside and at 3:10 pm, they both looked away from the screen the moment the credits rolled marking the end of the competition.

123 hours and 10 minutes. They won $10,000 each, a lifetime subscription to Netflix, the Guinness World record and the very awesome Popcorn Bowl Trophy. I was just about 55 hours short. I got a 1-year subscription to Netflix. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was a unique experience that I will never forget, except for a few hours that I genuinely have no recollection of at all. I love Young Frankenstein but I don’t remember watching about half of the film and that was only the second day. Despite falling short of the trophy, I still accomplished what I set out to do. I was doing this because I knew I’d be able to find some publicity for my film, Stuck Like Chuck, through this and it worked. I was written about in several local newspapers and my film was mentioned in about half of them.. This contest also got me on this site, which has been one of the few sites that I visit everyday for my movie news. This contest also led me to meet some
really great people from around the world and hopefully we will be able to stay in touch online.

Overall, it was an amazing once in a lifetime experience and I am just happy to have been a part of it. I want to end this by sending out a big thank you to anyone readingthis who was involved in any way with the Popcorn Bowl and to everyone who stopped by or showed support for all of us competing. I’d also like to thank Scott and the other Movie Geeks for giving me this forum to talk about this event. If you have any questions, feel free to post them and I’ll try to answer them in the comments. Also, if you have a Netflixsubscription, be sure to check their site since they are supposed to be releasing some more exclusive footage of the event in the future. For now, you can see some short videos on www.youtube.com/netflixnowplaying. Thanks again. Keep watching movies!

Jerry Cavallaro
www.AreYouStuckLikeChuck.com