I've worked in a movie theatre for years and been a fan of movies for much longer. I have never really paid attention to movie run times in the past, they didn't really effect me. If a movie was abnormally long, I would take note, but I didn't really care otherwise. Once I started being a projectionist, I soon began to care. The longer the movie, the longer I had to stay at night after later shows. This works both ways though, the longer I have to stay, the more I get paid.
Anyway, I began thinking about this more and more. I honestly feel like movies have gotten much longer in the last five years. Maybe it is just that the more memorable movies are getting longer. Maybe action scenes in movie are just getting longer and more frequent. Is there a pattern here? I've decided to look into it further.
First, I'm just going to list the top box office films for a few years and their run times. By the way, I do want to add I'm not going to be looking into any article similar to this, I want to discover all the information on my own!
1999
- Star Wars: Episode 1 - 133 minutes
- The Sixth Sense - 107
- Toy Story 2 - 92
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - 95
- The Matrix - 136
1999 Average: 1 hour 52 minutes
2000
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas - 104 minutes
- Cast Away - 143
- Mission Imposisble II - 123
- Gladiator - 155
- What Women Want - 127
2000 Average: 2 hours 10 minutes
2001
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - 153 minutes
- The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - 178
- Shrek - 90
- Monsters Inc. - 90
- Rush Hour 2 - 90
2001 Average: 2 hours 0 minutes
2002
