Are movies getting longer?

Comedies and Action ficks

They were never the biggest box office performers, but comedies performed nonetheless. They were even more common among mid-budget films than Action movies were. This is no longer the case, as the 2+ hour MCU, DCU, Kong, Jumanji, and all other Action-y franchises became an even bigger part of the recent years’ mainstream films.

These findings are consistent with the idea that studios are relying on I.P.-based “amusement park” movies to draw us out from our streaming services-infused homes. Streaming services, as Matt Damon explains, also led to the death of DVD sales and rentals, which had provided production companies a considerable extra cushion of revenue. If the convenience of at-home, on-demand entertainment and lack of DVD revenue leads production companies to adopt a “go big or go home” strategy for theater releases, then they might think to double down on a higher grossing movie type, which we saw in 2009-2015 was Action more than Comedy. And since these Action films are generally longer than Comedies, then it makes sense mainstream movies are seeing an increase in runtime.

In addition, though, Action films themselves are getting longer in runtime - also by a 6 minutes average. One explanation is related to the second limitation: there are various subtypes of Action movies, so perhaps longer-running subtypes have become more frequent than before, thereby increasing the average runtime for all Action movies. Post-credit scenes, which are now a commonplace element of franchise movies, may also be responsible for a small increase in average runtime.

Generalizing movie types

My way of defining movie types (Action and Non-Action Comedy) was broad. The comedies considered in our analysis range from slapstick comedies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop to Oscar-bait comedic dramas. Surely these are not the same type of movie. Even Action encompasses a variety of films, from The Angry Birds Movie to Dunkirk to The Angry Birds Movie 2.

Bigger budget does not necessarily mean theatrical release

My assumption that higher budget movies are more likely to play in theaters may not hold for all movies, especially in today’s streaming era. This was made evident by a Hollywood Reporter article, in which actor Glen Powell is quoted saying he and Anyone But You (2023) co-star and producer Sydney Sweeney turned down bigger budgets from streamers in order to give their romantic comedy a proper theatrical release.

More limitations are described here.

We used to be a people that watched 100-minute-long Comedies in a Cineplex Odeon theater.

From 2009 to 2015, we had two Grown Ups and three Hangover films grace our cinemas, all of which were between 100 and 102 minutes in runtime, and made $200 to $550 million each. The year 2011 saw two Rom Coms called No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits release in theaters; they shared the same exact premise and yet both grossed a handsome $150 million worldwide each. Now, Adam Sandler movies go straight to Netflix, The Hangover director is onto his second Joker film, and Romantic Comedies… go straight to Netflix (or Hulu, Prime, and so on).

Can “smaller” movies make a theatrical comeback?

According to a survey conducted by The Cinema Foundation, people want to watch more comedies in theaters. Anyone But You’s box office success is evidence of this sentiment, and we’ve since seen other producers choose theatrical releases over a big Netflix cheque. Moreover, in his Academy Award acceptance speech for writing American Fiction, Cord Jefferson called out studios’ blockbuster-obsessed nature and advocated “Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making ten $20 million movies”. He was met with applause but who knows how earnest.

In the meantime, we can still go out and find a shorter movie to watch in theaters, despite them being less common. Who knows, maybe you can watch two since they’re so short.

Generalizing Blockbuster and Mid-Budget films

The fifty highest budget and the next fifty highest budget films are grouped as Blockbuster and Mid-Budget films, respectively, even though there could be high variation in budget within the two groups. Second, the variation itself may change over time, meaning the fifty highest budget films could represent a different proportion of Hollywood expenses in 2009 than in 2016. That is, if a movie studio’s strategy changes from making a few midsize movies per year to one huge movie, then perhaps the definition for a Blockbuster should change accordingly and cover fewer movies now than before.

No 2023 Data

The most recent data I have is of 2022, meaning I’m missing a full year of the most recent movies (2023). One year doesn’t sound so bad, but the analysis is meant to explore a recent trend so it would’ve been nice to have the most recent data.

1. Are Movies Getting Longer