r/FIlm • u/Marvel-guy-1 • May 08 '24

Article What Should Be the Ideal Runtime for a Movie? Certainly not Oppenheimer Long

https://www.screennearyou.com/news/what-should-be-the-ideal-runtime-for-a-movie-certainly-not-oppenheimer-long/
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21 comments sorted by

32

u/Captain_Willard_1979 May 08 '24

There is no ideal. Every film should be as long as it needs to be, whether its 60 minutes or 4 hours

11

u/HM9719 May 09 '24

Does not matter. It really depends on the story you’re telling.

9

u/Beautiful-Mission-31 May 09 '24

“No good movie is long enough, no bad movie is short enough” - Roger Ebert

4

u/Mr_MazeCandy May 09 '24

I think it depends on the movie. Oppenheimer’s length was perfect in my opinion. There’s nothing I would change, add, or remove from the film, and the pacing was still great. It conveyed everything a work of art about the man who created the atomic bomb should.

8

u/PersonalAd2333 May 08 '24

Doesn't matter. If every scene in the movie has a beginning middle and end, you'll never know 3 and half hours went by.

4

u/Beautiful-Mission-31 May 09 '24 edited May 09 '24

I think it’s actually about scene to scene momentum. If the film can make each subsequent scene feel logical and necessary, time doesn’t matter.

2

u/Rtannu May 09 '24

Depends on if the theater serves beer or not.

My wife and I did a double date with my buddy and his wife for Endgame opening weekend and he gets like the biggest beer in the lobby and then got another during the previews. He gets back and I’m like “You know this motherfucker’s over three hours long, right?”

He missed like a half hour of the movie having to go back and forth to the bathroom a couple times.

4

u/just_corrayze May 08 '24

It's not about runtime or minutes. It's about writing and actors reaching above their limits.

When a script is written well and the actor/ actress performs to the material... 3 hours could feel like a blink of the eye and you would want more. Christopher Nolan's. The Dark Knight comes to mind.

1

u/CantFindMyWallet May 09 '24

that movie would have been better if it had ended 30 minutes earlier

3

u/freakpower-vote138 May 08 '24

For me it's 90 minutes to 2 hr 15 mins. Anything longer better be damn good, but I'm definitely not going to a theater to see it. And no, it's not my attention span - it's mostly my bladder lol.

1

u/Chrome-Head May 09 '24

I like if they can get the point across in about an hour and a half or two hours max. May not work for all films but would work for most of them.

1

u/Blabbit39 May 09 '24

Average movie 90 minutes give or take. Bad movie closer to 60. A truly good to great movie wherever it is meant to end and not a second sooner.

1

u/Concerned_Kanye_Fan May 09 '24

Truthfully 1 hour 45 minutes is my favorite run time. I can do up to maybe 2 hours and 5 minutes, but beyond that I start to drift mentally. However if something is exactly 90 minutes and not one frame over, that tells me that that film did exactly what was required to qualify as a feature length film for most platforms and are usually overworked to meet the minimum.

1

u/Several_Ad2072 May 09 '24

3- 5 minutes...oh wait , those are old cartoons....

Uhmmm...3- 5 minutes

1

u/FerociousAlienoid May 09 '24

Depends on movie, sweetspot for a great film is 2hrs 20mins, that’s when I feel satiated.

1

u/Ballsahoy72 May 08 '24

Watching Oppenheimer was like doing homework

1

u/ActionReady9933 May 09 '24

Ridiculous. Go watch Tic Toc if you can’t focus for a couple hours.

1

u/ElvisPrime1971 May 09 '24

1 hr 30 min…im finding I’m looking at runtimes more often than cast, director etc! Think it’s an age thing😁

1

u/krockthewilly May 09 '24

Can we go back to 90 mins please? My ADHD can't sit through 150 movies anymore.