I'm going to weigh in, even though I was never really active in the earlier "MCME Movie Nights".

Myself and numerous others over the past weeks have watched quite a few films, all without difficulties. Each and every one was planned for less than 10 minutes and went off without a hitch. We have watched good movies, and shite movies, but each one was a pleasant viewing experience.

Planning out these movie nights are, as stated throughout this thread, difficult and will tend to fail. This isn't the fault of the planners or the participants, but just because planning something concretely is already challenging, then throwing in all the additional factors with being an online community stretched across the world, makes it a damn near impossible thing to keep consistent.

My thoughts:

• Plan to watch movies and know who wants to watch them.
  • We have setup a Google Spreadsheet listing 200+ films each marked with who wants to see it
• Assess who is available to watch at a given time
  • Check online (generally in TS) and message each one asking if they would like to watch a movie
• Select a film based on viewers
  • Search through your list, and select a film that the viewers want to see, and the people unable to attend don't
    • This isn't 100% failsafe, but more often than not, you can get close
• Watch and enjoy your impromptu movie session

All that being said, I would love to watch 12 Years a Slave.