A new American market survey found that people who go to the cinema prefer films to last 92 minutes, i.e. just over an hour and a half.
15 percent thought films that last over 120 minutes – i.e. two hours – were acceptable, while only 2 percent thought it was okay with a film longer than 150 minutes (2.5 hours), shows the answers that Talker Research received from 2,000 Americans, writes The Guardian.
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At the same time, it turns out that nine of the ten highest-grossing cinema films clock in at over two hours. Three of them (“Avengers: Endgame”, “Avatar: Way of Water” and “Titanic”) lasted over three hours. Only the 2019 film “The Lion King” ended up under two hours, as far as it was, with a length of 118 minutes.
The average length is increasing for the most commercially successful films, figures from What to Watch show: In 2022, the average length was 141 minutes, compared to 110 minutes in 1981.
The reasons proposed are many, including that the entry of streaming services has shaken cinemas’ previous strict length requirements. But there may also be a desire for time to show off expensive visual effects and action scenes.
