Whenever a film with an almost three-hour runtime gets released, a group of viewers panics. This is followed by the question, ‘How long is too long?’ As soon as “Killers of the Flower Moon” hit the market, some audience members turned the watching experience into a proper marathon.
As the film industry continues to grow with each passing day, we can certainly see a trend returning to the market. Technically, movies were longer during 1930-1960. However, the VHS era arrived, and studios and directors were forced to aim for shorter lengths to fit inside a VHS tape.
But during the 2000s, the market started to boom again with the emergence of CD and DVD, making the duration less of a concern. However, human attention spans were on the verge of being corrupted, which can be defined as a shorter attention span.
A study suggests that in 2004, the average attention span on a screen was around 150 seconds, and with time, this timeframe started to shrink. Right now, it only lasts an astonishing 47 seconds, one third of what it was 20 years ago.
It was all good and bright, but then came superhero movies. On paper, they did a lot for the industry and brought in the big bucks. However, they also made the audience fall in love with extremely fast-paced and entertaining storytelling. The market was getting saturated with DC and Marvel content. Quite frequently, they crossed the so-called golden bar of 150 minutes, but nobody complained.
If you want to give credit to modern long films, you can let James Cameron know, as with his movie “Avatar,” things started to change. The studios weren’t just investing in the superhero genre; they were also addicted to visual extravagance. Though at that time, there was the matter of physically selling the copies, a subconscious thought that the showmakers had. Even the latest Avatar crossed the three-hour mark, leaving a visual festival.
Then Netflix happened and it was followed by the OTT platforms. Now, with the emergence of these online platforms, there was no tension of selling it in a physical form, thus the makers got the freedom to make long forms of art.
Even this year, the trend is setting up to produce long forms of cinema. The Joaquin Phoenix comedy “Beau Is Afraid” almost touched the three-hour mark. On the other hand, “Oppenheimer” makes it a worthy three-hour watch, despite breaking normal cinema norms and being filled with conversations after conversations.
And then comes the legendary Martin Scorsese; he gifted a film with a runtime of 206 minutes, and people are complaining that it’s too much. Now, the partnership of Scorsese, De Niro, and DiCaprio will grab the attention for every single minute. So what’s the basic problem over here?
Besides the growing length of the films, it’s the shorter attention span that makes us appreciate the craft less. If you ever streamed “Euphoria” and came across their formula, you would know that they prioritized rapid cuts and rapid scene changes, and that’s not always the case with ‘Art Films’.
Even now, the commercial and action films seem a bit too prolonged, and it’s not the showmakers’ fault. Our minds are getting used to the portrait mode of Insta reels and YouTube shorts, so three hours seem like a lot to the viewers. So, should they stop making long films? Hell no, art should always carry the essence of the creators, and if necessary, it can be as long as the director wants. After all, Roger Ebert once said, “No good movie is too long, and no bad movie is short enough.”
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
