The creators of The Big Movie Quiz describe the game as fun for the whole family. That is, if your family members are into movies, of course! The retro VHS tape-looking box includes a multitude of questions about your favorite movies, Oscar-winning films, and more. If you often feel as though you’ve seen pretty much every relevant movie in the English-speaking world, this game is for you. The question is, how do you play it, exactly?
Famously, the game comes without instructions. Many people have gone online to ask the question: just how the heck do you play this game?! It’s almost as if the creators wanted to leave it to the player’s interpretation. Official rules of the game must be out there somewhere, right? Maybe, but we haven’t found them. It seems as though The Big Movie Quiz could just be a box of movie trivia questions, as some players describe it.
To help all of our confused trivia lovers, we decided to come up with some rules for the game. Rather, this is a collection of tips that can make playing more meaningful and fun. However, Trivial Pursuit this is not—remember that all the rules are made up! Play whichever way you see fit and enjoy yourself. Ultimately, it’s about the person or team that gets the most questions right.
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Classic Trivia
When you’re playing any trivia game, you might as well try playing the classic trivia way. That means 10 rounds with 10 questions in each round. You may pick a bonus question or a tie-breaker if you need one. You can decide if players should get a time limit for each question. There doesn’t have to be an official time limit, but if the player has been thinking for too long, you can move on to the next player.
The benefit of different rounds is that everybody has a chance to win. Even if you’re losing in the beginning of the game, you still have lots of time to get ahead. You don’t need to stick to 10 rounds if you don’t want to. With The Big Movie Quiz, you can do three rounds, with each pile of questions being one round. You can also do six or nine rounds, where each pile of questions gets used twice or three times. The winner is chosen at the end of the game based on the number of questions each player answered correctly.
Implement a Time Limit
Playing against the clock is fun because you don’t really need anybody else. Technically, you could even play alone, but the question cards don’t allow for solo play. When you’re playing with friends, you can implement a time limit per question to speed up the gameplay. If you feel like the game is getting boring, do a speed round of questions to spice things up.
Most trivia game apps will give you between 10 and 30 seconds to answer a question. Some give you 60, but that’s just too much in my opinion. Provided another person reads out the question, you should have around 15 seconds to answer. That’s plenty of time to analyze the question and come up with an answer. If you still don’t know what to say by the time the clock runs out, you probably never knew the answer in the first place.
Play with a Game Board
A great way to play trivia games is with a game board. The game board adds an interactive element that simultaneously makes the players focus on the gameplay more. The easiest way to do it is the Trivial Pursuit way. If you’ve got an old Trivial Pursuit game board lying around in the depths of your attic or garage, pull it out and breathe some life into it!
In Trivial Pursuit, the first person to collect all six wedges is the winner. There are only three categories in The Big Movie Quiz. You can aim for quicker gameplay by allowing the winner to be the first one to collect three pieces of the pie. Alternatively, you can name a number of questions that have to be answered in order to win. Each correct answer can push you ahead on the board, while incorrect answers can pull you back. Allow players to keep answering questions as long as they’re getting them right or instill a quota of one question per player per turn. Ultimately, the first player to collect all the wedges and get to the middle of the board is the winner.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even create your own game board. Interested in that idea but don’t know where to start? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!
Win By Questions, Cards, or Categories
There are 300 questions, with 100 in each category, and 150 cards overall. In Trivial Pursuit bite size editions, players are asked to answer 12 questions right or collect six cards before their opponents. The Big Movie Quiz can follow the same principle. Select a few cards to collect or questions to answer in order to win. If you want to make it more difficult, set a quota of questions per category. Let’s say you need to answer 20 questions right, with at least five in each category. Thus, if the player that answers 20 questions right first answered all their questions in one category, they have to keep playing until they can get to the other two categories.
Keep Going Until You Lose
You might have seen this version of trivia in popular trivia apps. In this game mode, you get to answer trivia questions until you get one wrong. At the end, your points are counted, and you’re placed somewhere on the leaderboard. If you want to recreate this in real life, get all the players to do rapid fire. It doesn’t have to be quick. The point is, they get to answer questions until they answer one incorrectly. After everyone has gone, you can count the points and name the winner.
The downside of this way of playing is that it’s not very interactive for everyone. It might also make the game very short. If you’re unlucky with the first few questions, you can lose right away.
Shoot a Question Here and There
Instead of playing a full-on sit-down trivia game, you can ask a random trivia question here and there. This is especially suitable for get-togethers that are not geared towards trivia games. Let’s say you’re having friends over and you can feel the conversation slowing down. As a great host, you feel the need to keep the party going, but you don’t think your guests are going to be receptive to playing a trivia game. Instead, you can pull out a random card from the pile and ask your guests a question. You, as the reader of the question, will know the answer. If successful, the question is sure to strike up a conversation and keep the party going. If you’re of age, it can even make for a fun drinking game!
Host a Pub Quiz
One way to use these cards is for your very own trivia night. Invite friends over, divide them into teams if needed, sit them down, and ask them questions! Since the theme is movies, you can decorate your living room accordingly and ask your players to name their teams after their favorite movies.
With these cards, you will be the star of the show. If you want to take it one step further, add an audiovisual round with a scene from a movie. You can improvise and choose the questions as you go or prepare them in advance. It’s better to have a look at the questions before the game, so you can choose the most interesting ones. Plus, this way you will know for a fact that your friends will be able to answer.
Read Out Fun Facts
A trivia game doesn’t always need to be played. Sometimes it can be used as a decor piece and a conversation starter, kind of like a coffee table book. When your family is all gathered in the living room and you can see everyone slowly pulling out their phones, shoot a fun fact at them. That might start a conversation that will last for hours! The same works for visitors. If you’re having friends over, surprise them with a fun fact that will add some fuel to the fire of the conversation.
Reading out random fun facts is a great way to use the game when it’s not getting much use. Not every crowd will be down for a trivia game. Sometimes, all they need is an interesting piece of trivia to discuss. This is a wonderful trick for dinner parties and gatherings at home.
Final Words
We may have been unable to find the official rules for The Big Movie Quiz—quite frankly, it seems as though there is no official rulebook! That just means that you can play the game however you like. We’ve provided some ways the game can be used, but it’s entirely up to you. After all, maybe that’s the beauty of The Big Movie Quiz. You don’t know how to play, so you play exactly the way you want. Believe me, this game will breed the best house rules! And, when you’re out of ideas, refer to this guide for some inspiration.
How do you play The Big Movie Quiz? Have you managed to find the official rules? Which one of our ways to play the game did you like the most? Try them all and share your experience with us in the comments!
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