Why are most movies 120 minutes (or more)?

I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that a piece of string is as long as it's long. There are movies which are way too long at 90 minutes, and movies that could have stood to have another half-hour added to their 150 minutes.

That, of course, is artistically speaking; commercial concerns for maximum head count per day are separate matter.
 
One better has a good reason (in other words: a good story) to bring out a long string. If so: No problemo. There are others that want to appear as magnificent events via time-stretch and water down what may have been there as dramatic material in the beginning.

In different words one of my teachers tried to convey to us: Make it as short that it hurts yourself a bit - but not so short that you really start bleeding. And give the audience the feeling that there is much more to your story than what was told. That's what keeps it interested and remember your film because they may subconsciously spin the story further.
 
Rolf Silber said:
One better has a good reason (in other words: a good story) to bring out a long string. If so: No problemo. There are others that want to appear as magnificent events via time-stretch and water down what may have been there as dramatic material in the beginning.

In different words one of my teachers tried to convey to us: Make it as short that it hurts yourself a bit - but not so short that you really start bleeding. And give the audience the feeling that there is much more to your story than what was told. That's what keeps it interested and remember your film because they may subconsciously spin the story further.
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All that is pretty much what I said.
 
latest remake of king kong comes to my mind...looooooooong, many others also come to my mind, but there are others, despite being long are entertaining for me.
But give me a good 40 minute or 90 minute film and I'll be really happy.
I find movie duration really comes to a personal taste, if you like the film you can stand a longer runtime. Take LOTR ROTK for example, 201/250 depending on version. I can watch the movie many times and find the runtime adequate. But I know people that find its runtime to be excessive. Now take Apocalypse now, I find it too long at 150/200 depending on version. But many people would argue long about its duration.
 
Josh Bass said:
40 minute????? That's bad indie short film territory bro.
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I've been watching "Game of Thrones" this season in 'real time', and I'm always saying... why not a few more minutes... The wiki lists the runtimes between 51-63 minutes... for previous seasons we would wait for the disks to come out and then watch the season in a day or 2 marathon...
 
Josh Bass said:
40 minute????? That's bad indie short film territory bro.
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Yes you may be true, but that may be because no one else has tried making a 40 min movie, just people that don't have enough resources to do a longer one.... assemble a top crew with the best screenwriters, directors, actors, technicians (good budget) etc and ask them to create a 40 min deep and entertaining movie.
I bet you it will be a hit. The problem, it seems 40 minute isn't enough to justify a 15$ ticket price.

It is true that not all stories can be told in 40 min, but I am sure there are many that can be. And I would love to see more good stories well developed under 50 min, just for the sake of seeing how it works.

And btw, I am not saying that a long movie isn't good, I love long movies when the content is entertaining.
 
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80 to 90 minutes is considered minimum for feature film length. Some Disney animations (cel not computer) barely hit that mark. +1 on the King Kong remake. The original decided to scrap several sequences, probably due to money issues, but those were created and used for the remake. Sadly, they should have been left out. Too Long! On the other hand, Dances with Wolves runs quite long, 181 minutes per IMDB, but it doesn't feel that long. The story is quite engaging.
 
There are a lot of epics and the like that are great with long running times, but then there are others that are very much not. I tried watching "Heaven's Gate", directed by Michael Cimino, which comes in at 219 minutes. OMG. It took 45 minutes to get to the start of the actual narrative. The cinematography, by Vilmos Zsigmond is outstanding, but it is a hard watch and I had to do it in bite sized chunks.
 
In the old times, when we dreamed of sending our opuses to sundance programmers, the rule I heard was make it a feature or make it 5-10 minutes, but in this day and age of internet distribution I say make it as long or as short as you want, if no ones paying for it, that is. Plus a lot of ppl these days are into episodic series so 30 minutes-ish "bite size" of drama aint so crazy anymore. I spent the last few years writing 5 minute shorts, then tried to write a feature, and it kicked my *ss hardcore. Writing 30 minute pieces now to start to learn how to fill a feature. I think of it as equivalent to learning to write a one-act play before a three act, l'll work my way up to 60 then 90. Do whatever u like unless, you're in a position where ppl will be paying to see your thing (selling a DVD or VOD??) then it better be 80+ minutes or ppl will feel cheated right? I still remember the giant GRRAOONNSS in the theatre years ago when the 45 minut-ish anime "Blood" ended seemingly abruptly like what that's it?!?!
 
Hey youre preaching to the choir. 40 minute features would be the greatest thing ever. Youd have no slow parts, no parts where you zone out and start thinking about whats for dinner later... But i dont think itll happen. And for most shorts thats way too long. Too long for fests. Unless youre one of those folks with a dedicated following online good luck getting strangers to commit to watching something that long. Its a tough length to work with is all im saying. If youre using it as practice for longer work thats cool...my experience has been that its hard finding a place for 30 and 40 minute stuff, and knowing how much work goes into any film, its a shame to make something that only a few people will see.
 
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