Are 3 Hour Plus Movies The New Thing Now When Making Movies In Modern Day??

I hope not. I miss 90 minute movies. Some of my favourite movies clock in under 90, like phone booth. I like long movies also. But 3 hours plus and I wont see it in the cinema. Fuck that, give me pause button any day.

I suspect streaming has had an impact on running times. The Irishman was a Netflix production. Killers of the Flower Moon is Apple. That's not coincidental.

Streaming companies don't put the same pressures on filmmakers to get the running times down, because it's beneficial to them for their subscribers to be engaged for longer. That's also why 'prestige' television has taken central spot culturally over films; it's useful for the streaming companies. They want your eyeballs for as long as possible.

Any length of film is fine if the film justifies its length. While I had some issues with The Irishman, its length wasn't really one of them. Thelma Schoonmaker knows how to edit a movie.

But generally with films -- of any length -- I do think some ill-discipline has crept into the editing process.

It's the new thing for making sure I never watch a new movie again. They keep saying if you can sit through entire seasons of a streaming show you can watch a long movie. But uh... I don't feckin watch tv that way either.

If a story is complex/compelling enough that it takes three hours to tell, much like some great novels are over two hundred pages, I don't have a problem with it.

OTOH, as we see with most of these streaming series peddling tedious drivel, more often means less.

So, imo, it depends.

The Wolf of Wall Street was released almost 10 years ago and The Irishman came out on Netflix. I like three hour movies but they are not the norm.

If a film is good, I don't care how long it is.

What you need to realize is that it's these big shot directors flexing their muscles and doing as they please. Nolan, Scorsese and Scott (Napolean will have a 4+ hour cut available on Apple TV+). These movies have aspirations for awards and acclaim rather than pure box office revenue. Streaming services and indie companies are known for letting their directors off the leash so to speak. They let them run wild.

Zack Snyder's Justice League is a great example. HBOmax and WB just let him do whatever the fuck he wanted and when you do this with directors they often churn out very long movies. (In saying this I really like ZSJL).

You even have dweebs like Ari Aster getting carte blanche to do as they please. That goober has a near 3 hour cut of Midsommar and Beau is Afraid is 3 hours too. Thankfully Beau flopped hard. He's taking the piss with his long meandering horror-comedies.


The awarding bodies, critics and many 'cinephiles' have a great appreciation for long and slow movies. Some of them like to view it as self back patting challenge. They watch it, like it, then claim that anyone who finds it boring has ADHD and should go watch Transformers or Marvel or whatever the latest pretentious insult is. I swear that nearly any 3 hour long movie will have some clowns calling it a 'masterpiece'.

Movies of this length will never be the norm. Thankfully.

just biographical movies it seems