Forked Thread: Length of movies

[Crothian]

Forked from: Why is Babylon's director bashing his own movie?

I think it is leisure time and they are profiling us, saying that America's only have so much free time and only want to spend 90 minutes at a movie (at this time of the year - summer we will stick it out for 2 hours).

I think it is more likely Americans can only stand 90 minutes of average or bad movies. It's not like a lot of people were leaving Batman or Lord of the Rings movies early. Give us a good long movie and people will watch it. The problem is we get too many bad long movies so people start to think long movies are just bad in general.

 

[Ranger REG]

Forked from: Why is Babylon's director bashing his own movie?
I think it is more likely Americans can only stand 90 minutes of average or bad movies. It's not like a lot of people were leaving Batman or Lord of the Rings movies early. Give us a good long movie and people will watch it. The problem is we get too many bad long movies so people start to think long movies are just bad in general.

It's a creative gamble though. What makes a lengthy movie good?

 

[frankthedm]

It is a decision driven by ticket sales. the Typical 90 minute movie allows for a 7pm and a 9pm showing. The longer a movie is the fewer showing it can have in general as well. If the studio has confidence in a Property / Plot / Movie / Director, they let it run longer. But if the studio is unsure of the property or just grinding out a title to have something for the theaters, expect the 90 minute run time.

A 90 minute Rancid Turd might still have a chance to make some money, though as it gets longer than that, the scatophageous movie goers won't be able to get into the theaters often enough.

Now because tickets have been slumping, these Value packed blockbusters are being put out in the hopes of getting folks back into the move theater and getting them used to being in the theater. But i suspect things will be back to the Fecal Smorgasbord Hollywood usually serves up soon enough.

 

[love.christine]

I can stand being in the theater for up to two and a half hours.

 

[el-remmen]

One of the reasons I find myself renting seasons of TV shows (like 'The Wire' - best TV of all time) more than movies these days is because I find it much easier to stick in an hour here or there to watch an episode (more like 40-something minutes if it is from network TV) than to watch a 2 hr+ movie I may not even end up liking very much.

Then again, I have become increasingly critical of movies in recent years. I can't remember the last movie I saw in the theatre that I actually liked.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I can stand being in the theater for up to two and a half hours.

The best I have managed is 12 hours, but that was for the Extended Edition trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. But on a more normal level I have no problems with 2-3 hours if the movie is good. I also limit myself to movies that are good, so that normally limits me to 3-4 movies a year.

 

[Ranger REG]

Again I ask, what makes a very long movie good to watch through?

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Again I ask, what makes a very long movie good to watch through?

A plot that captures my attention enough that I don't notice the length. I can't be more specific than that though because there is not any specific formula that will always work.

 

[Crothian]

Again I ask, what makes a very long movie good to watch through?

Good story, good acting, interesting...

I find that what makes a movie goo makes a movie good almost independent of length

 

[Crothian]

I can stand being in the theater for up to two and a half hours.

Every year we have a 24+ hour sci fi movie marathon at one of my local theaters!!