“The Batman” is just one of many current blockbusters that require a lot of staying power due to their length. Netzwelt reveals why cinema films are getting longer and longer.
“The Batman” takes his time with his investigations (Source: Warner Bros. Pictures Germany)
- “The Batman”, “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “James Bond – No Time To Die” – cinema blockbusters are getting longer and longer.
- Running times of more than two and a half hours make it clear: extra-long films are popular.
- But why is that if neither cinemas nor film studios benefit from it?
The length of a movie is never left to chance. Blockbusters like “The Batman” aren’t shot first and in the editing room the director is surprised to find that a lot of material has accumulated and a running time of less than 3 hours will hardly be possible.
The length of the script already shows how long a film will probably be, and later on most productions still have to give up quite a bit when the respective film studio demands changes and, above all, cuts.
In other words, at Warner Bros. everyone seemed to agree that “The Batman” should be three hours long. In principle, this length is not a problem either, the current DC blockbuster is by no means the first three-hour film, there are even much longer strips.
But “The Batman” serves only as an example of a trend that movie fans have been seeing with increasing frequency in recent years. More and more expensive blockbusters are very long, with a running time of 2.5 hours and up.
That doesn’t say anything about the quality, but it almost seems as if the film studios wanted to indicate exactly that: Our film is not a regular film, it is an event, something special. This logic has tradition if you look into the past.
Longer, Bigger, Better – The Roadshow The most beautiful word to read with a full bladder: Intermission – time for a break! (Source: Warner Bros. Pictures / Screenshot: Netzwelt)
In the USA, the so-called road shows were very popular in the 1920s and early 1950s. Big and important films were treated like plays, they traveled from city to city and were shown in a particularly high-quality setting and with an intermission. The admission price was correspondingly higher, and the films normally only came to the cinema much later.
Notable roadshow films have included Gone With the Wind (1939, 3 hours, 58 minutes), Ben Hur (1925, 3 hours, 32 minutes) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962, 3 hours, 47 minutes) . “Lawrence of Arabia” is part of the second wave of road shows that attempted to lure the audience away from their television sets and back into the cinemas.
If you’re watching an older movie and it’s cut off in the middle by the word “INTERMISSION,” then it was probably a road show movie. The theatrical atmosphere plus intermission naturally presupposed that the films were of an appropriate length, so it was considered good manners at the time that such film experiences could boast a proud running time.
In December 2015, Quentin Tarantino brought “The Hateful 8” to selected cinemas as a roadshow version, which showed the film in a longer version including the overture and intermission. In principle, however, the age of road shows is over – but not the age of long films.
” Tip: The best VPN providers for more security and privacy
Don’t miss anything with the NETWORK-Newsletter
Every Friday: The most informative and entertaining summary from the world of technology!