It’s Not Your Imagination: Movies Are Getting Longer
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The run time of average major-release films have ballooned in recent years. And, yes, Marvel movies are partly to blame.
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Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment You know the feeling: You’re sitting in a movie theater. The film feels like it should be ending soon. Yet it just … keeps … going. It’s not your imagination. Major wide-release films are getting longer — even if the average film produced is not. Researcher Stephen Follows checked the run times of 36,000 films that were released theatrically from 1980 to 2025 and discovered the average length of a wide-release theatrical title has grown from roughly 106 minutes in the 1990s and early 2000s to 114 minutes in recent years. Films with big budgets — $100 million plus — tend to be even longer. He points out that pre-show advertising and trailers have also expanded to average around 20 to 30 minutes. So you’re spending more time sitting in a theater seat than ever before. Related Stories Lifestyle The 9 Best Airbnbs in Los Angeles Near Universal Studios Hollywood Lifestyle Zendaya Delivers Final Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue Look on 'The Drama' Press Tour Another way to look at this: In the 1980s, 14 percent of wide releases ran more than two hours. In the 2020s, that number jumped to 32 percent. The genre most responsible? Action films, which now average 128 minutes — a whopping 25 minutes longer than a few decades ago. If you’re thinking this is caused by franchise movies like Marvel, Mission: Impossible and Fast & Furious films, you’re likely right, as Follows’ research points out that the more recent entries in many popular franchises have recently ballooned to record run times. But it’s worth noting that plenty of non-franchise films have also rocketed past the two-hour mark lately. Current box office king Project Hail Mary runs 156 minutes, Dune: Part Two ran 166 minutes, and Oppenheimer ran 180 minutes. That said, films made for le...
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