Are films really getting longer and longer?

Additionally, the top-rated films on movie platforms don’t change much. Whether on Letterboxd, IMDb or Senscritique, for example we will certainly find The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola), which lasts two hours and fifty-five minutes. But also its sequel, The Godfather 2 (1974), which lasts more than three hours. The position of these films in the various rankings can change and we will also often find 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick) which lasts two hours and forty hours, The Return of the King (2003, Peter Jackson), three hours and twenty-one minutes or even Interstellar (2014, Christopher Nolan) with a duration of almost three hours.

Longer and longer films?

Yes and no. In 2023, an analyst named Francis S. Domingo shared his analysis of IMDb top 250 data. In an article published on Medium, he shows in particular the distribution of films in the ranking, according to their duration. The most common duration is 100 to 150 minutes. Przemysław Jarząbek, another analyst, had, in 2018, analyzed all the films registered in the IMDb database. He found that the most common duration is 90 to 100 minutes. The most popular films therefore seem to be longer on average.

However, Przemysław concluded in his study by saying that saying that “films are getting longer and longer” is false, because the differences in length over time would be too small. He specifies, “It is true that in the first decades of cinema, films were shorter: they lasted on average 90 minutes in the early 1930s and reached 100-110 minutes in the mid-1950s. Since then, there has been no real trend in our data.”

What about these days? In the top 10 box office for 2023, we find six films that last more than two hours, half of which are more than two hours and thirty minutes long. A trend that we find in the top 10 of the biggest hits worldwide, with four films lasting at least three hours and the rest exceeding two hours.

This trend towards long blockbusters is due to James Cameron. The Canadian director has proven since Titanic (1997) that it is possible to make three-hour films that achieve worldwide success. It is no coincidence that three of his films are among the biggest global box office successes in history.

Differentiate yourself from streaming

In recent years we have seen many big hits which approach or exceed a duration of three hours. Several explanations are possible. Mainly, competition with streaming platforms. Indeed, according to Gabri Ródenas, professor of audiovisual communication, this strategy lies in the desire to differentiate itself from platforms.

In the 1960s, film studios faced the same problem. But with regard to television. They wanted to stand out from the small screen. So we started to see more and more epic films. Great historical frescoes like Ben-Hur (1959, 3h33) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962, 3h42). Nowadays, big studios focus a lot on blockbusters and franchises (MCU, Star Wars, Avatar). Big-budget films, with lots of special effects and a stellar cast. All this with the aim of attracting spectators from the small to the big screen. And when we see the biggest hits at the global box office, we can say that it works.

The films are therefore longer than before. At least, the most popular ones. Marc-Olivier Sebbag, general delegate of the National Federation of French Cinemas, declared in Le Monde that “the spectacular side of cinema adapts well to length. Duration amplifies the experience. Certainly, a longer film requires cinema operators to stagger screenings and mathematically we can show fewer films in a day, but that does not necessarily have a big influence on the number of spectators.”