| By Tanya Chhabrain Hustle Guides|Reader DisclosureDisclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means we may earn a commission if you click on some of our links.
Imagine getting paid by Netflix for binge-watching your favourite shows and movies. It sounds like a dream, right? What if I tell you that you can actually make it happen and make money by watching movies?
With the world facings a number of lockdowns amid a horrible pandemic, watching movies with your family and friends has become one of the favourite hobbies for a lot of people. However, it doesn’t need to be a leisure activity. You can make some money on the side while binging your favourites.
Dive right in to know how you can make that happen!
The idea of earning money while doing something you love seems great and easy. However, you must note that only in rare cases you will earn enough to make this your primary source of income. Most of the methods of earning money through movies can only be used as a side hustle. For example, if you are really serious about movies and have the required skills, you can become a movie critic or an entertainment blogger and make it your main source of income. But if you just want an additional source of income, you can perform some easy tasks like taking surveys, providing data or giving feedback.
Moreover, the amount of money you earn depends on the amount of time you spend on these activities. While some methods pay $50 in a year, the others pay around $10 an hour. Therefore, if you devote your time properly, you can earn anything from $10 to $200 in a month.
How To Make Money By Watching Movies?
Some of the most popular and simple ways of earning money include:
Become A Creative Analyst (Netflix Tagger)
Netflix hires a creative analyst or a tagger from time to time. You simply need to watch some shows or movies on the platform while carefully analysing their genre and tag them accordingly. This is done to make it easier for users to navigate a film or a show with the help of these tags. Unfortunately, the job for a creative analyst rarely opens up and is very competitive because you get paid to watch movies and shows from Netflix itself.
Write Movie Reviews Or Blogs
If you love watching movies and also have a knack for creative writing, you can easily earn money by writing movie reviews. As a movie reviewer or an entertainment writer, you watch different movies and shows and express your opinion about them by writing a review. Movie reviewers are very detail-oriented. They need to analyse various aspects of a film and descriptively present their views.
You can either start your own blog as a movie reviewer or contribute to existing websites that pay you for your articles. Some of such websites include:
A focus group is an excellent place for all the movie lovers out there. Apart from earning money, you get to watch early releases, make new connections, and give valuable feedback to improve production. The pay for joining a focus group is usually $50-$100 per hour. However, finding a movie focus group is comparatively difficult as it largely depends on your location and the screenings going on in your area. Thus, here are a few websites to help you find a suitable focus group:
Another way to earn money by watching movies is to participate in movie surveys. In these surveys, you just need to answer some simple questions about your experience while watching the movies, such as your likes, dislikes, how much you rate the movies, etc.
Some popular applications that pay you to participate in such surveys include:
InboxDollars: One of the most popular applications known for its surveys. You can earn from $0.50 to $5.00 just by spending 3-4 minutes on the application. Apart from that, you get a $5 signing bonus. Furthermore, you can even earn money by watching specific videos, playing games, shopping, and even reading emails! However, you will need to make at least $30 before cashing out.
Swagbucks: Swagbucks is another popular site that offers many opportunities to earn money by answering some simple surveys. You can make as much as $100 per month using this website. Swagbucks pays its participants through gift cards, promo codes and cashback.
MyPoints: another application that offers gift cards and even transfers for answering some surveys. Furthermore, you will receive a $10 bonus just for signing up!
Write Movie Subtitles (A Closed Captioner)
A closed captioner is someone who writes captions or subtitles for movies. To earn money as a closed captioner, you need to do more than just watch movies. You need to be fast, accurate and fluent in English to make money as a closed captioner. However, you could make good money as a closed captioner. According to Glassdoor, the average pay for a closed captioner is around $14 per hour.
Become A Movie Critic
A movie critic is yet another exciting way to earn money for movie geeks. Professional movie critics are an essential part of the entertainment industry and have a lot of perks coming their way. As a movie critic, you need to have a good knowledge of the elements that come together to make a film. Movie critics deeply analyse films and different aspects of filmmaking and present their views, so the audience understands the movie better. Being a critic is more than being a movie reviewer, and you will have to work a little harder to break into this industry.
Moreover, the job comes with its own perks and fame. You will receive invitations to early releases; you will be approached by various magazines, newspapers, digital outlets, etc. and most of all, you will be paid well. On average, movie critics are paid around $30,000 annually.
Performing In-Theatre Checks Or Mystery Shopping
A very interesting way to earn some extra money while watching movies is mystery shopping. Mystery shoppers visit movie theatres as a regular audience and provide feedback on how things are working. They are basically paid to evaluate a customer’s experience in a theatre. They perform certain in-theatre checks like blind checks, ad checks, sound checks, cleanliness checks, etc.
Some companies that hire people to work as mystery shoppers are:
By working with these companies, you can easily earn anything ranging from $10-$40 per hour all while watching movies for free!
Providing Data
Some companies and websites pay people to collect data on their watching habits. So all you have to do is provide access to your data and then start earning by simply watching your favourite movies and shows. Nielsen is one very popular company that pays you to collect data about your watching tendencies. All you have to do is install their mobile application, and you can earn $50 per year.
Go On, Tell Us What You Think!
Did we miss something? Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on resolving workplace conflicts in the comments section.
An enthusiastic human being with determination and zeal to explore new ventures. Tanya is an entrepreneurial spirit searching for changes and learning to exploit them as opportunities and impacting people for good.
