A simple glance at the audiovisual ecosystem is enough to realize that the contents are more and more numerous and especially increasingly shorter. Our attention is constantly solicited by the incessant flow of tweets, reals, TikTok videos, etc. Faced with this saturation – not to say hypertrophy – of the audiovisual space, some authors have underlined the risk of seeing our capacity for attention compromised. Such is the case with Nicholas Carr and his now classic The Internet Makes You Stupid?
One could therefore assume that films or series follow this trend towards ever more brevity; on the contrary, the length of films continues to grow.
The increase in screen time is noticeable in films intended for cinemas. This is the case in Avatar: The Way of the Water (James Cameron, 2022), with 192 minutes, the recent Babylon (Damien Chazelle, 2022), with 188 minutes, or the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame (Anthony and Joe Russo, 2019) and its 181 minutes.
First of all, it should be pointed out that there have always been longer than average films. Think for example of classics such as Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, George Cukor and Sam Wood, 1939), with a duration of 238 minutes, and Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959) and its 211 minutes, not to mention cite just a few well-known examples.
But we can still wonder why films are getting longer and longer, at a time when everything indicates that the trend should go in the opposite direction: the success of series, the wars between streaming platforms, the battle for the attention and endless supply that encourages accelerated consumption.
This question, however, is not an absolute novelty, but rather accentuates characteristics already present in the film industry since the Hollywood of the 1950s. Already at that time, the need to stand out from the television offer led the studios to opt for longer films, with more stars, more effects, more spectacle. Much like what is happening today with productions like Avatar or the Marvel movies.
In previous decades, cinemas had opted for a double screening model, inherited from the past, or three screenings in a row. This is one of the reasons why the average length of a movie was 90 or 100 minutes.
Ironically, "blockbuster" productions, which run a few minutes longer than the average, such as Alien: The Eighth Passenger (Ridley Scott, 1979; 116 minutes), Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985; 116 minutes) , Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984; 107 mins) and The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985; 114 mins) – to name but a few examples still fresh in readers' memories – have gone from being the exception to the norm and ultimately gave the industry a new direction.
On the other hand, the attempt to expand the narratives (which, ironically, could be seen as an "attempt to be like the series"), without being something entirely new, has different nuances. Robert McKee, in his book Story, points out the existence of works with more acts than the traditional three. In this sense, he cites Four Weddings and a Funeral (Mike Newell, 1994), with five acts; Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981), with seven, or The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989), with eight.
Today, what was once the exception is starting to become the norm. This brings us to the following conclusion: cinema has to deal with several problems. These include changes in viewers' consumption habits - including a decline in cinema attendance - the primacy of series (more in line with the idea of domestic and dynamic consumption), the greater audiovisual offer and the price of cinema tickets - similar to the cost of a monthly subscription to any streaming platform.
For all these reasons, the film industry, especially the cinema-oriented one, seems to have concentrated its offer. Thus, he favored big-budget long films, with more subplots and more spectacularization. All these characteristics seem to justify the price of entry and deter subscription to a streaming platform or other distribution channels.
In the case of more independent productions, the longer duration would respond to a desire to explore new narratives, further removed from television or mainstream discourse and major productions.
Anyway, and while confirming the drift of the sector, it might be a good idea to order the popcorn in XL format, if you don't want to run out before the lights come on in the cinema hall.
* Gabri Ródenas, Professor of Audiovisual Communication, University of Murcia, Spain.
This article is part of the research carried out by the IDEcoA research group at the University of Murcia.
