This is a list of the twenty least watched 5" Criterion spine-numbered releases, as tabulated by displayed letterboxd watches on January 1st, 2026. Totals for each film are listed in the notes.
Category 06 in the 2026 Criterion Challenge
In the January, '26 Update, "Compensation" technically moved off the list, gone but not forgotten as they say, "The Making of Fanny and Alexander" was added to the list. Because of the 2026 Criterion Challenge, I'm leaving "Compensation" on the list for the next year.
The primary qualifying rule used for this list is: One spine number with one film. This eliminates from consideration the 364 films in short film collections, box sets and double features that use a single spine…
This is a list of the twenty least watched 5" Criterion spine-numbered releases, as tabulated by displayed letterboxd watches on January 1st, 2026. Totals for each film are listed in the notes.
Category 06 in the 2026 Criterion Challenge
In the January, '26 Update, "Compensation" technically moved off the list, gone but not forgotten as they say, "The Making of Fanny and Alexander" was added to the list. Because of the 2026 Criterion Challenge, I'm leaving "Compensation" on the list for the next year.
The primary qualifying rule used for this list is: One spine number with one film. This eliminates from consideration the 364 films in short film collections, box sets and double features that use a single spine number for their respective releases. This creates a better apples-to-apples comparison amongst the ~1200-ish films that are included under the rule.
Why parse the collection using this rule? If not applied, this list would have the 19 least watched Olympics films and "A Wind from the South" From the Golden Age of Hollywood. Most of the least popular films in the Criterion Collection are from the various short film collections (Brakhage, Painleve, Frampton etc) or are from single spine number 'box set' releases (such as the Olympics or Lamorisse sets).
(The third film from the 1988 Seoul Olympics, "Beyond all Barriers" is the overall least watched criterion release at a mere 198 watches on 2026/01/01).
One outlier eliminated is the 8-film Paul Robeson set; although Criterion assigned the films 4 spine numbers, each spine number has a double feature.
Four times in the DVD era, criterion assigned spine numbers to full length documentary films that merited their own DVD disc within a box set. All four of those films are on this list.
The runners up for the list are:
#0477: Bergman Island (2006) - 2,751 watches
#1291: Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray - 2,765 watches
#0548: A Safe Place - 2,848 watches
#0532: Louie Bluie - 2,853 watches
#1274: Compensation - 2,867 watches
List originally tabulated September 2025
