"Overlong" Entertainment

Boredom is a subjective perception, and often deceiving.

Spectators who complain about the length of a movie, only stigmatize the run time when the content is not stimulating enough for the limitation of their attention span. They never complain about the same characteristic (duration) in an exciting ENTERTAINMENT movie. So many of the most popular/successful movies exceed the standard duration established by exhibitors in Hollywood and the Western world (90 minutes), and thus for quite a long time. Let alone the standard duration in Bollywood (closer to 150 minutes, although revised to 110 in recent years). The following examples in this list are not experimental works or obscur artfilms by Tarr Béla or Lav Diaz... they are all commercial movies for a mainstream audience, and ranked in IMDb's top1000. Except for Fanny and Alexander, and The Best of Youth (TV episodes released in theatre; the 2 highest dots on the graph), all are feature length movies with a commercial theatrical release. Some of them are animation for children (Fantasia, Cars, Spirited Away...)! or Teen flicks (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Carribean...) If children can take a movie longer than 2h, I would expect adults (who happen to work for the NYT) to be able to handle it too without whining like babies in front a broccoli.

A long movie is just not that odd! And not even in domain of the highest-grossing BO blockbusters. It's not rare, boring or unpopular!

Keeping this in mind, now reconsider the reasons why you reject "slowish artfilms" and CCC... It's not because of their duration, which rarely reach the epic length of a Harry Potter movie. You're just addicted, conditioned to constant nagging stimulation, and lost any reasonable sense of the passing time when it does not beat to the rhythmic cuts and punchlines. This is your problem, a problem of the audience in general in this day and age. Not the problem of a cinema that operates in different waters, nowhere out of reach, nowhere inaccessible to the common man's physiological abilities... but in a space where a greater deal of concentration is required to keep out of your mind the idea to look up your smartphone.

Mainstream entertainment movies longer than 120 minutes (incomplete selection, emphasized after 1994 to compare with CCC; longest runtime version available for each title):

• The Birth of a Nation (1915) 190 min
• Intolerance (1916) 197 min
• Helena (1924) 204 min
• Les Misérables (1925) 359 min
• Les Misérables (1934) 281 min
• Gone with the wind (1939) 226 min
• Fantasia (1940) 125 min ***KIDS***
• The 47 Ronin (1941) 241 min
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 163 min
• Henry V (1944) 137 min
• Children of Paradise (1945) 163 min ***TEENS***
• Tokyo Story (1953) 136 min
• Shichinin no samurai (1954) 207 min
• The Ten Commandments (1956) 220 min
• Around the World In 80 Days (1956) 183 min ***KIDS***
• War and Peace (1956) 208 min  
• Giant (1956) 201 min
• Les Misérables (1958) 210 min
• Ben-Hur (1959) 212 min
• Rio Bravo (1959) 141 min
• Spartacus (1960) 184 min
• Exodus (1960) 208 min
• The Alamo (1960) 202 min
• Pepe (1960) 195 min
• Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) 186 min
• El Cid (1961) 182 min
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 216 min
• Sodom and Gomorrha (1962) 154 min
• The Leopard (1963) 187 min
• The Great Escape (1963) 172 min
• It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) 154 min
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) 188 min
• The Sound of Music (1965) 174 min ***KIDS***
• Dr. Zhivago (1965) 197 min
• The Bible (1966) 174 min
• Hawaii (1966) 189 min
• The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (1966) 182 min
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) 175 min
• Ryan’s Daughter (1970) 195 min
• Woodstock (1970) 184 min  ***TEENS***
• Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) 189 min
• Fiddler on the Roof (1971) 181 min
• The Godfather (1972) 175 min
• The Iceman Cometh (1973) 239 min
• O Lucky Man! (1973) 183 min
• The Godfather: Part II (1974) 200 min
• Barry Lyndon (1975) 184 min
• All The President's Men (1976) 138 min
• Star wars (1977) 125 min ***TEENS***
• The Lord of the Rings (1978) 132 min  ***TEENS***
• The Deer Hunter (1978) 185 min
• Apocalypse Now (1979) 202 min
• Tess (1979) 190 min
• Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) 127 min ***TEENS***
• The Shining (1980) 142 min
• Heaven’s Gate (1980) 220 min
• Kagemusha (1980) 180 min
• The Blues Brothers (1980) 133 min ***TEENS***
• Reds (1981) 194 min
• Fanny and Alexander (1982) 312 min
• Les Misérables (1982) 220 min
• Gandhi (1982) 188 min
• Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) 135 min ***TEENS***
• Scarface (1983) 170 min
• The Right Stuff (1983) 193 min
• Amadeus (1984) 160 min
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984) 229 min
• Ran (1985) 162 min
• Goodfellas (1990) 146 min
• It (1990) 192 min ***TEENS***
• The Godfather: Part III (1990) 169 min
• Dances with Wolves (1990) 236 min  ***TEENS***
• At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) 189 min
• JFK (1991) 189 min  
• Malcolm X (1992) 202 min
• Schindler’s List (1993) 195 min
• Short Cuts (1993) 187 min
• Pulp Fiction (1994) 168 min ***TEENS***
• Shawshank Redemption (1994) 142 min ***TEENS***
• Forrest Gump (1994) 142 min ***TEENS***
• Burnt By The Sun (1994) 135 min
• To Live (1994) 125 min 
• Les Misérables (1995) 175 min
• Se7en (1995) 127 min 
• Underground (1995) 170 min
• Heat (1995) 170 min
• Braveheart (1995) 177 min
• Casino (1995) 178 min
• Sense and Sensibility (1995) 136 min
• Nixon (1995) 192 min
• The English Patient (1996) 162 min
• Hamlet (1996) 242 min
• The Rock (1996) 136 min  ***TEENS***
• Secrets & Lies (1996) 142 min
• Princess Mononoke (1997) 134 min  ***KIDS***
• The Game (1997) 129 min 
• Donnie Brasco (1997) 127 min 
• Titanic (1997) 194 min ***TEENS***
• L.A. Confidential (1997) 138 min
• Boogie Nights (1997) 155 min
• Jackie Brown (1997) 154 min
• As Good as It Gets (1997) 139 min
• The Thin Red Line (1998) 170 min
• The Red Violin (1998) 130 min ***TEENS***
• Elizabeth (1998) 124 min 
• The Horse Whisperer (1998) 170 min  ***KIDS***
• The Legend of 1900 (1998) 170 min 
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) 169 min
• Les Misérables (1998) 134 min 
• Fight Club (1999) 139 min 
• Matrix (1999) 136 min ***TEENS***
• The Insider (1999) 157 min
• Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace (1999) 136 min ***TEENS***
• The Green Mile (1999) 189 min
• Magnolia (1999) 188 min
• Gladiator (2000) 171 min ***TEENS***
• Amores Perros (2000) 154 min 
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) 120 min ***TEENS***
• Cast Away (2000) 143 min  ***TEENS***
• Traffic (2000) 147 min
• A Beautiful Mind (2001) 135 min
• Black Hawk Down (2001) 144 min
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) 159 min ***KIDS***
• Spirited Away (2001) 125 min ***KIDS***
• Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001) 122 min  ***TEENS***
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 228 min ***TEENS***
• Pearl Harbor (2001) 183 min
• Catch Me If You Can (2002) 141 min
• Minority Report (2002) 145 min
• The City of God (2002) 130 min 
• The 25th hour (2002) 135 min
• The Pianist (2002) 150 min
• The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) 131 min
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) 235 min  ***TEENS***
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) 174 min  ***KIDS***
• Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) 142 min ***TEENS***
• Gangs of New York (2002) 167 min 
• Gods and Generals (2003) 231 min
• La meglio gioventù (2003) 366 min
• Love Actually (2003) 135 min
• Mystic River (2003) 138 min
• X-Men 2 (2003) 133 min ***TEENS***
• Good Bye Lenin! (2003) 121 min 
• The Last Samourai (2003) 154 min ***TEENS***
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 263 min ***TEENS***
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) 143 min ***KIDS***
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) 141 min ***KIDS***
• Million Dollar Baby (2004) 132 min
• Downfall (2004) 156 min 
• Taegukgi (2004) 140 min 
• Aviator (2004) 170 min
• Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004) 133 min ***TEENS***
• Man on Fire (2004) 146 min
• Ray (2004) 152 min
• Alexander (2004) 214 min
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) 136 min 
• Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) 140 min ***TEENS***
• The New World (2005) 172 min
• Brokeback Mountain (2005) 134 min
• The Constant Gardener (2005) 129 min 
• Batman Begins (2005) 140 min ***TEENS***
• Munich (2005) 164 min
• Walk the Line (2005) 136 min ***TEENS***
• Cinderella Man (2005) 144 min  ***TEENS***
• Kingdom of Heaven (2005) 192 min
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) 157 min ***KIDS***
• King Kong (2005) 187 min  ***TEENS***
• The Departed (2006) 151 min 
• V for Vendetta (2006) 132 min ***TEENS***
• The Life of Others (2006) 137 min
• Apocalypto (2006) 139 min 
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) 141 min
• The Black Book (2006) 145 min 
• Casino Royale (2006) 144 min ***TEENS***
• Blood Diamond (2006) 143 min
• Babel (2006) 143 min
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) 151 min ***KIDS***
• Cars (2006) 117 min ***KIDS***
• The Prestige (2006) 130 min ***TEENS***
• There Will Be Blood (2007) 158 min
• Into the Wild (2007) 148 min ***TEENS***
• American Gangster (2007) 157 min 
• Zodiac (2007) 157 min
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) 160 min
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) 169 min ***KIDS***
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) 138 min ***KIDS***
• The Dark Knight (2008) 152 min ***TEENS***
• Entre les murs (2008) 128 min ***TEENS***
• Che 1&2 (2008) 269 min
• The Chaser (2008) 125 min
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) 166 min
• Iron Man (2008) 126 min  ***TEENS***
• The Hurt Locker (2008) 131 min
• The Changeling (2008) 141 min
• Inglourious Basterds (2009) 153 min
• Millenium (2009) 152 min ***TEENS***
• Avatar (2009) 178 min ***TEENS***
• Mother (2009) 128 min
• Un prophète (2009) 155 min 
• Watchmen (2009) 215 min  ***TEENS***
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) 153 min ***KIDS***
• Inception (2010) 148 min ***TEENS***
• Shutter Island (2010) 138 min 
• I Saw The Devil (2010) 141 min
• Incendies (2010) 130 min 
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1&2 (2010) 276 min ***KIDS***
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) 136 min ***KIDS***
• Moneyball (2011) 133 min  ***TEENS***
• X-Men: First Class (2011) 132 min ***TEENS***
• The Help (2011) 137 min 
• Warrior (2011) 140 min 

Related:

• Reductive Foreign stereotype / Weak's cutoff : No cinephilia 
• Dan Kois Syndrome 
• Festival pundits (spoiled brats)