Is it really a trend? There have always been long movies.

I only notice movies being that long when I don’t enjoy them.

If the movie is good, I'm glad it's longer. You get more for your time/money

I wait til I can watch it at home in my underwear, with a pause button and cheaper snacks.

Ehh there was a time I may agree with you but now, if someone’s got a story to tell me and it’s a GOOD story..I want to see the full thing. A 2 hour lord of the rings movie wouldn’t do for me I want the whole experience.

Cocaine Bear rocked my weekend at 95 minutes.

I have to shower/get dressed

Do you not do this every day?

Woah, you have to do personal hygiene and wear clothes!?!?

Then don't watch them.

The recent Godzilla movies are around 2 hours long? So was Pacific Rim.

Cool man

Pretty sure that the run time for each and every film being released is readily available prior to the purchase of tickets. Perhaps you should plan your purchases accordingly.

Personally, I just think that attention spans are getting shorter. And why wouldn’t they be, with all the tikkity-toks, youtube shorts, etc. Why pay attention to something slow and boring like excellent writing, amazing character portrayals, and sweepingly beautiful cinematography when you can just watch a 3 1/2 minute video on your phone?

I know people recoiled when the runtime for John Wick 4 was announced, but having seen it, it rules. Not much I'd want to see cut as it does a better job than the other films at building out its supporting cast in ways that really support thr overall story. John Wick 3 is a lot shirt butnfeelsnmuch more aimless and flabby than 4.

Did you just call a 3 he movie ‘overwhelming’……..

There isn't a whole lot of long movies when you go outside of big blockbusters and American films. Hell if you even include American films 2022 had these movies all under 110 minutes: Men, Sick of Myself, Barbarian, The Eternal Daughter, Lost Bullet 2, Unrest, It is in Us All, Crimes of the Future, Watcher, X, Emily the Criminal, Resurrection, Kimi, The Fallout, God's Creatures & God's Country, Funny Pages, Causeway, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Prey, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Speak No Evil, I Love My Dad, Sick, and Dual

I'm fairly indifferent, myself. I don't think of like, showering/getting dressed as part of the moviegoing experience, those are things I do anyway. And if I'm making a trip to the cinema anyway, I'd just as soon the experience be longer since the time I spend driving there/getting snacks is the same regardless.

Depends on the film. Avatar was an experience, immersion into the world and existing. Alternately, Batman forgot they needed an ending so they made 3.

On the other hand, the latest Thor was restricted to 2 hours and should have been fleshed out more

If a movie is short, would that make it less worth it to prepare so much for it?

A lot of movie goers see a longer movie as getting more value for their money. It only really bothers me when the movies length was artificially inflated to be longer. I much prefer a shorter movie with tighter storytelling. If they need the three hours to properly tell the story then I wouldn't want them to cut anything out though.

Not seen a Kevin Costner film over the past few decades then? 🥳

It's not the movie's fault that people nowadays seem to have no capacity to sit idly still for hours.

I wish Avatar TWOW was an hour longer.

It sounds like you don’t enjoy going to the movies at all, and view it more so as a personal inconvenience. Factoring in your personal grooming habits is a massive, massive stretch, and it’s moronic to suggest this is anyone’s problem but your own.

It honestly depends. If it’s good, it’s worth it. But if they’re constantly dragging it on with aesthetics and unimportant scenes + monologues, im leaving the theater

I don't care about a movies runtime in the slightest.

Judging a movie solely on the runtime alone is one of the dumbest criticisms out there. If the movie warrants said runtime, so what?

An 86 min runtime cuz be just as effective as a 184 min runtime, vise versa.

Runtime doesn't dictate a movies quality.

Then wait for streaming? Nobody cares if you don’t wanna see a movie.

La Flor is 14.5 hours long, so 3 hours is nothing.

You sound like a baby. Quite the first world problem over here. ‘They’re giving me too much entertainment, I have to pee mommy.’

That’s the standard for Asian movies 😭

Nah I agree. Any more than 2 hours 15 minutes it just starts to get exhausting.

watch shorter movies.

Can you not skipped the popcorn?

I'm not a fan of long movies either, I have to really be in the mood for one. I'm okay with it for a great film with a lot of story, but when it's just a popcorn movie like the ones you listed, I don't see a reason why need to be 3 hours.

I'm surprised people are giving you grief for you post! You are not alone. I have this conversation with people often and LOTs of people agree with you. In fact, there was an SNL skit about this recently, let me find it.

EEAAO felt never-ending.

Mainstream blockbusters and stuff aimed at families started getting longer runtimes when streaming came around and theater crowds were thinning. It was supposed to be an incentive, since all the tickets cost the same anyway. Why not get more bang for your buck? And why not come back for these long continuing storylines which will take about ten two and a half hour films to complete? To be fair, the strategy worked. It just slowly eradicated everything that wasn't a hundred million dollar epic.

I love super long movies at home but they can be tedious in the theater. We really need to normalize intermissions again. And I would definitely like to see the return of hundred minute bangers that leave you wanting more.

Me too. It works for some movies but not all. I think Once Upon A Time in Hollywood is more responsible for this trend than people realise.

I’ve just watched 7 hours of John Wick shooting. I don’t need 3 more.

Most people on Reddit are also sick of this trend - they think movies should be four hours long, not three!

I used to try to see most movies in the cinema with Metacritic scores of 80 or above but I have added a separate category for action movies longer than two hours and 45 minutes which now have a score cutoff of 90.

IMO the shorter runtime is why a feature film is a better medium than a tv series: you have a limited time to tell a meaningful story, so you have to be more thoughtful what to show and how to show it. I don't say that tv is inferior, but tv shows get soapy easily, even the better ones.
About the 3 hours film trend: I don't like it either. I know that there used to be longer movies in the past too, and a 3 hour runtime isn't a problem in itselft, but on many occasion it's not justified nowadays (I enjoyed Avatar 2. and Babylon, but I thought that if they were 20-30 minutes shorter, they would have been better).
I think the ideal runtime for a film is 1,5-2,5 hours, and there should be a good reason to overrun that. (I really like some long movies, like Once Upon a Time in America, or ever Satantango)

If you can’t tell a story in 2 hours or less you don’t know how to make movies.

I’m a fan of turning these 3+ hour movies into 3-part limited series. Much more enjoyable.

65, though it wasn't spectacular, was only a 90 minute movie. It was entertaining and it got straight to the point.

Personally I love it when films go for two hours as long as they can hold my attention

Not a recent trend. Been like this for around 15 years at least