this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023
188 points (93.9% liked)

Movies and TV Shows

5229 readers
4 users here now

General discussion about movies and TV shows.


Spoilers are strictly forbidden in post titles.

Posts soliciting spoilers (endings, plot elements, twists, etc.) should contain [spoilers] in their title. Comments in these posts do not need to be hidden in spoiler MarkDown if they pertain to the title's subject matter.

Otherwise, spoilers but must be contained in MarkDown as follows:

::: your spoiler warning
the crazy movie ending that no one saw coming!
:::

Your mods are here to help if you need any clarification!


Subcommunities: The Bear (FX) - [[email protected]](/c/thebear @lemmy.film)


Related communities: [email protected] [email protected]

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Movies have been getting longer for a few years or so but they are especially long this year. Look at the biggest films this year and see how they are about 20-30min longer than they would be in the past.

  • The Flash - 2h 24m
  • Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - 2h 34m
  • Oppenheimer - 3h
  • Barbie - 1h 54m
  • John Wick: Chapter 4 - 2h 49m
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - 2h 29m

And even crazier are the 2 parter movies.

  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - 2h 16m
  • Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One - 2h 43m
  • Dune 2 - reported way over 2h

A few years ago this was different.

  • Action films like Indiana Jones, Marvel movies, John Wick and Mission Impossible used to be about 2h - 2h 15m.
  • Movies closest to Barbie like Clueless and Legally Blonde were about 1h 30m.
  • Biopics like Oppenheimer were longer but not 3h. Lincoln was 2h 30m.
  • Animated films would be 1h 45m max.
  • Lynch's original Dune was almost 3h cut by the studio to 2h 15m.

I remember when Harry Potter Deathly Hallows got criticism for being a 2 parter. The Dark Knight Rises got push back from theaters saying it was too long and made it difficult to have a lot of showtimes. Now it feels like these long showtimes and 2 parters are the rule rather than the exception.

Do you prefer movies longer or do you think they are getting too bloated and need to be cut down?

Also what is causing this trend of long films? I think it's streaming and binging making people more comfortable watching TV for a long time. But I see people say that attention spans are getting shorter thanks to the internet so I don't really know.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Slagathor 4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

This is why I haven't seen "The Irishman" yet. I like Scorsese, it has a great cast, and I've heard good things about the movie, but I can't find the time to sit down for three and a half hours.

Between work, kids, and just generally trying to keep on top of stuff it leaves little time to commit to a film that long. Recently I've been just watching series'. It's easy to watch an hour long episode, or two, than to strap in for a really long movie.

I have a long list of movies I've been "meaning to catch up on", but the trend of longer runtimes is making that list longer and longer.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What if I told you that you can pause movies after watching for an hour and then come back to it later?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Yep. Recently watched Apocalypse Now Redux with my wife on a Saturday night and we got tired half way through. We just stopped it there and watched the second half on a Saturday night one week later.

Neither of us had seen Apocalypse Now before. Hell of a movie!

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)