[Advanced] Movies Taking Their Sweet Time (1)

In today’s fast-paced world, more major films are running longer
By Rebecca Keegan and John Horn, Los Angeles Times

You can fly from Los Angeles to Seattle in less time than it takes to watch "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Elite runners can finish a marathon faster than the total time of "Django Unchained."

Daily life may be swinging toward two-minute YouTube videos and brutally succinct tweets, but there's still one place where time practically stands still: the multiplex. Extra-long films have proliferated this season, a consequence of directors who wield near unilateral control over their films' running times and digital filmmaking tools that allow for longer and repeated takes.

15:25
Some movie theater owners say the current crop of long-winded movies are costing them at the box office, as films approaching three hours in length can be shown only once an evening.

Exhibitors and more than a few movie critics have bemoaned this spate of prolonged productions. Yet some members of the most important constituency in the film business say the long films don't really feel that time-consuming.

"It never lagged," said 12-year-old Jesse Serrato, who joined his family for the 169-minute "Hobbit" movie this week in downtown Los Angeles and clearly has more fortitude than many adults.

22:00
The year's maximalist movies include not only typically longer prestige titles such as "Lincoln" (149 minutes), "Les Miserables" (158) and "Zero Dark Thirty" (157) but also a comic-book movie ("The Dark Knight Rises," 164), a James Bond sequel ("Skyfall," 143) and a comedy ("This Is 40," 134).

The running times haven't hurt some of these long movies at the box office. "Skyfall" has garnered domestic ticket sales of $272.6 million, "Dark Knight Rises" took in $448.1 million and "Lincoln" has grossed $108.5 million.

But those outsized revenues have largely come from megaplexes, where theater owners can utilize more screens for a hit film. The operators of smaller complexes say they don't have that latitude, and are consequently suffering.


mms://203.69.69.81/studio/20130717ada0f6608ba065c7beab7218eaccd0e219d0ac2d04f5aa24e651b6d02ae925f4855.wma