They Keep Going And Going It’s Not Your Imagination, Movies Really Are Getting Much Longer

It’s not your imagination, or a lack of sleep, or the big meal you ate before buying your ticket. It’s no illusion: Movies are longer.

And not by just a minute or two, either. On Friday, Kenneth Branagh’s new adaptation of “Hamlet” opens nationally (but not in Spokane), and depending on whom you believe, the studio releasing it or an English critic who sat through it twice, it clocks in at either 242 minutes - as in 4 hours, 2 minutes - or 246 minutes. That’s without the intermission. Two films playing on other screens, “Mother” and “Evita,” clock in at a relatively brief 104 minutes and 130 minutes, respectively. If you decided to make a day of it, you could spend 476 minutes - nearly eight hours - watching just these three movies.

In the case of “Hamlet,” director Kenneth Branagh was obligated to deliver two different versions of the much-adapted Shakespeare classic to distributor Castle Rock. The first, which was to be the most complete rendering ever of the text, was always intended to be four hours or longer, but Branagh also prepared a two-hour-plus version that could be shopped to theater chains reluctant to show a movie that would tie up so much screen time.

But Castle Rock’s president, Martin Schaffer, says that anyone interested in seeing “Hamlet” is not likely to just show up at a theater expecting to catch the next show.

“With a movie like this, that issue is irrelevant,” says Schaffer, “because the people who want to see it will make the effort. The actual fact is that people don’t care how long a film is if the film is good. One of my favorite movies of all time is ‘The Godfather, Part II,’ which is three hours and 20 minutes, and I wish it were longer. We’ve made films that were 85 minutes that seemed a lot longer than some we’ve made that were two hours.”

Still, when Branagh approached the company about financing a full-text “Hamlet,” Schaffer agreed only with the proviso that the filmmaker would also prepare a two-hour version.

“We felt we had to prepare for the possibility that exhibitors wouldn’t play the four-hour version,” says Schaffer. “But what we found out was that they wanted the full-length version or nothing.”

Schaffer says that the company has no plans to release the half-“Hamlet” domestically, but that the abridged cut may eventually be shown internationally or on domestic airplane flights. But at least 150 U.S. theaters, he says, will eventually play the “Hamlet” Branagh dreamed of.

If the critic’s watch kept correct time - “I don’t think even Kenneth knows exactly how long it is,” says Schaffer - “Hamlet” would be the longest movie ever released by a major studio. “Cleopatra” ran 243 minutes in 1963, while 1984’s “Once Upon a Time in America,” originally released in the United States in a studio-trimmed 139-minute cut, was finally restored to its original 227-minute version turned in by director Sergio Leone. 1980’s “Heaven’s Gate” was an enormous flop at 219 minutes, while “Ben-Hur” was an enormous hit in 1959, despite running 212 minutes.

All those movies, however, were marketed as events. Today, audiences are surprised when they attend everyday films like “Jerry Maguire,” a romantic comedy with Tom Cruise, and end up investing two hours and 18 minutes.

But Stephen Galloway, the editor who keeps an eye on film industry trends for the trade paper the Hollywood Reporter, believes that one of the reasons movies are getting longer is that the public wants them them longer.

“If you’re paying $7.50 or $8 for a ticket like we are in Los Angeles and you get one of those 85-minute cheapies Disney used to turn out, you’re going to feel ripped off,” says Galloway. “With the advent of cable and higher-quality television, films have to be more of an event than ever, and there is still that assumption that more means better.

“Second, for whatever reason, we’re seeing a return to the epic or semi-epic style of film, which traditionally has translated to length,” Galloway continues. “So you’re seeing a romantic epic like ‘The English Patient,’ which is two hours and 39 minutes, or an emotional epic like ‘Breaking the Waves,’ which is two hours and 40 minutes. It’s a natural consequence of the style.”

Still, Gallagher says he has heard “many, many people say that as good as ‘The English Patient’ and ‘Jerry Maguire’ may be, they’re just too long. But producers like Saul Zaentz (‘The English Patient’) and James L. Brooks (‘Jerry Maguire’) have the clout to keep their movies at the length they want. But I assure you that if distribution had been calling the shots, ‘Jerry Maguire’ would be under two hours.”

The reason, says Gallagher, is simple math. “Jerry Maguire’s” extra minutes effectively eliminate one theatrical screening per day.

“Multiply that times seven times the number of screens it’s playing on (2,600) and you’re talking a dollar or two,” he says.