Falling asleep in a movie theater is a symptom of Old Man Syndrome. It occurs when the brain is incapable of activity due to triggers like large, sugary drinks, reclinable seats, and sitting in a dark space for considerable amounts of time.
My father has an early-onset OMS. Now I, too, have begun to nod off in the theater, but I doubt it’s because I’m an octogenarian. Something more sinister is going on: movie run times are growing like a cancer.
My first signs showed up while watching a new franchise installment, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which ran for 2 hours 34 minutes, half an hour longer than every other movie in the franchise. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, but I wasn’t distressed. It wasn’t a pattern yet.
But then I watched other sequels, and nearly every one tacked 30 superfluous minutes onto the end of their predecessor. 2009’s “Avatar” ran a stunning 2 hours 42 minutes, but its 2022 sequel, “The Way of Water” was 3 hours 12 minutes. “Deadpool” was only 1 hour 48 minutes, yet “Deadpool x Wolverine” was 2 hours 7 minutes. Many early Marvel Cinematic Universe movies clocked in at around two and a half hours. “Avengers: Endgame,” 3 hours 1 minute long, set a trend that many recent Marvel movies have aspired to reach.
Why do these flare ups keep happening?
Some longer movies attain more box office success by pitching moviegoing as a big, rare event. When people associate movie length with prestige, Hollywood is incentivized to stretch movies for as long as possible.
The demand for quality special effects drives up run times, too. Concise plot points are replaced with long, visually stunning fight scenes.
Both of these phenomena sacrifice movie quality for public demands.
The original “Godzilla: King of Monsters!” ran a neat 1 hour 9 minutes with no SFX, and has a 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. This year’s highly anticipated “Godzilla v. Kong,” ran about an hour longer, was primarily filled with intense, CGI’d fight scenes, and scored a lukewarm 76 percent. Clearly, giving the people what they ask for doesn’t make them like your movie any more.
In terms of price, movies cost millions of dollars more for added minutes, money that could be spent on quality actors and making more movies. Longer runs also means fewer plays per day, decreasing ticket sales.
The movie industry should be adapting to the needs of the current generation. With TikTok and Instagram reels shortening people’s attention span, movies should be getting shorter, too. If they keep getting longer, everyone might start showing signs of OMS, or they won’t go to the movies at all.