It’s Not Your Imagination: Movies Are Getting Longer
The Hollywood Reporter • • entertainment
Key Points:
- Research shows that the average length of wide-release theatrical films has increased from about 106 minutes in the 1990s and early 2000s to 114 minutes in recent years, with big-budget films often running even longer.
- The percentage of wide releases running over two hours has more than doubled, from 14% in the 1980s to 32% in the 2020s, with action films driving much of this increase, now averaging 128 minutes.
- Franchise films like Marvel, Mission: Impossible, and Fast & Furious contribute significantly to longer runtimes, but many non-franchise films, such as Project Hail Mary, Dune: Part Two, and Oppenheimer, also exceed two and a half hours.
- Factors behind longer films include digital projection, studios aiming for event-style releases, premium formats like IMAX, and audience preferences, especially among younger viewers who seek substantial content in longer movies.
- Despite the trend toward longer films, many classic and beloved films from past decades told compelling stories within roughly two hours, suggesting that brevity can still be effective in filmmaking.
