Waste Some Time On This Very Difficult Movie Quiz

If it isn’t dead, the traditional movie theater is on life support… and has one of those “angel of mercy” nurses hovering over it. The pandemic has wrought such havoc on the theater business that I regret spending 10 seconds of my life even typing this obvious statement. There are actually more open theaters than many think — thanks, states that have treated COVID as NBD — but, as you can imagine, the masses are acting like they’re running an “Eighties Travolta” retrospective. Even without an ongoing plague, the theater-going experience is a test in human tolerance. It’s expensive. People can be rude. Dates can stand you up repeatedly (uh, so I’m told). And let’s not forget the rise of the streamers and the fact that you can snag great home viewing technology for a ridiculously low sum. When taking these factors into consideration, it’s not hard to see why the photo processing counter is sidling over to make room on the Bench of Obsolescence. Heck, Warner Brothers recently announced that it would be releasing its entire 2021 slate of films simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max.

One of the other movie-related casualties of the pandemic is the red carpet premiere. Stars gather to promote the film, gush about how great it was to work with so-and-so, display sometimes-questionable fashion choices and, if you’re Shia LeBoef, maybe get escorted from the premises. It’s a pretty rote exercise that’s, frankly, a bit antiquated… the practice came about when stars weren’t nearly as visible as they are today and there weren’t a bazillion outlets to promote a film (yikes, ever notice how “social media” is the answer to 75 percent of questions about why things are the way they are today?). Still, there is some nostalgic value in looking at premiere photos from years gone by when a movie was an event, not something you watch while sitting on the toilet. What makes it even more fun is to look at said photos and guess which movie premiere it is. And… suppose some blogger aggregated a bunch of these photos and challenged readers to identify the movie premiere in question? Well, I beg of you — because I certainly don’t need another lawsuit — please try to stop your mind from being blown. There is just such a quiz below!

It’s straightforward: below are unlabeled photos of stars, directors, and those otherwise involved with the production at the premiere of a movie. Name said movie. These run the gamut from very easy to “five stages of grief” hard. But let’s face it: do you want to be the person that watches Jeopardy! and gloats when you gets every question right, or do you want to be the person who’s disappointed because the clues were so easy? Random note: it was really freaking hard to find photos that didn’t have a sign or display in the background that betrayed the movie title. Hint: the answers are all contained somewhere in this post. Okay, they’re at the bottom. Click on the photos to embiggen them.