And I bet the Master of Suspense would agree. And so, theater owners, I beg of you, stop forcing us to choose between running to the bathroom and watching Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway “ walk around an empty space station.” As boring as the latter may sound, I’d rather have the chance to do both.
And some of us would be more inclined to give these movies a shot if we got the chance to stretch our legs about halfway through. I stand with the Master on this one: If there’s one thing that gives me pause when deciding whether or not to watch a movie, it’s a more-than-two-hour running time.īut there are films that earn their many minutes. Intermissions also had the financial advantage of driving business to the foyer.
MOVIE INTERMISSION MOVIE
Such features replicated the traditional experience of theatre, and gave the movie a sense of being an 'event'. Movies also had printed programmes for their early showings. Alfred Hitchcock is often quoted as saying, “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” Most of his features hover safely around the two-hour mark none reach 150 minutes. Intermissions were a standard feature in very long movies, right up to the 1980s, as were overtures. The reinstating of movie intermissions could even do wonders for filmmaking itself. (And then you can turn off your phone when you go back in, thank you very much.) You can tweet your joke about how some people in the movie are getting older while Matthew McConaughey stays the same age. But intermissions would have benefits for busy people, too-people with kids, say, and workaholics who are always on their phones: During the break, you can check in with the babysitter or read all your work emails. You’re busy, you’ve got a life to live, you don’t want to carve more time out of your day to catch a flick than is absolutely necessary. Granted, some moviegoers may not like the idea. And having watched that final act with new snacks and empty bladders, they’ll probably walk out of the theater more satisfied with the whole experience, perhaps more likely to return to the movies again soon-thus, potentially, making up for any losses distributors might face. (That’s where the bulk of their revenue comes from anyway-and has for some time.) Patrons will surely be inclined to grab another drink or box of Junior Mints at intermission. But theater owners, at least, can probably make some of that back by selling even more of their ridiculously overpriced concessions.
I know, I know: Releasing and scheduling a two-plus hour movie is already potentially cutting into profits for distributors and theater owners, since they can’t screen, say, Exodus: Gods and Kings (150 minutes), Inherent Vice (148 minutes), or the final Hobbitinstallment (at 144 minutes, the shortest entry in the trilogy) as many times as they can show Big Hero 6 (a brisk-by-comparison 102 minutes). If the film reaches or exceeds 2½ in length, give us a break! Bring back the intermission. Vulture has taken to offering guides for would-be audiences on the best moments to take much needed bathroom breaks during particularly long movies. Today, the biggest blockbusters are, on average, longer than they were just 20 years ago.
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