By Hope Sandusky/nw news editor
Once upon a time, you could go to the theater and for a mere 90 minutes, enjoy a movie.
You would get to the theater and buy your ticket. You’d get your popcorn and drinks. You’d find your seat and then watch the movie.
If the movie was good, it was awesome. And if it was bad, it really was OK because it didn’t take out too much time in your day.
If a movie was especially grand in scale, it might be two hours, but those were few and far between.
Nowadays, if you go to the movies, you are going to spend a minimum of two hours watching the film.
That’s not including early arrival to find a seat and watch the previews.
Whatever happened to the days of the 90-minute movie?
Think about it.
You arrive to the theatre 30 minutes to an hour early to buy tickets, get your popcorn and find a decent seat.
Then after waiting all that time, you go through 30-45 minutes of previews before finally reaching the film.
And then you sit through two, sometimes three hours of a movie with a story that could be told in an hour.
When did the film industry decide every movie deserved to take up that much time of an audience’s day?
Few films deserve two hours. But nowadays, every film needs that much time to tell a story. Every film needs to be an epic.
It’s time the film industry stopped fooling themselves.
Not every film is epic. Not every film is a grand masterpiece, full of drama and mystery. More than likely, your film isn’t going to win an Oscar.
There is no need for every character’s backstory, for everyone to get a happy ending, for every possible type of character to be profiled.
If it can be told in five words, don’t say it in 10.
It’s time to stop dragging things on and get to the point. You can add imagination and be as creative as you want. But it’s the time the movie industry started getting selective. Not every movie needs two hours. In fact, some things don’t need a movie at all.
