Movie time length and potential box office grosses?

[Electric]

I've worked at AMC Theatres for about three years now and I've noticed that the longer movies can only get 4 (or maybe 5) showing a day on a screen.

 

A shorter movie (Gravity, Mr. Peabody) could fit 6 or even 7 depending on when the first/last shows are.

 

Do you think that this helps movies, the chance to have more showtimes? And would people generally prefer shorter films?

 

At the same time one could argue you're getting more entertainment hours for the same price with a long movie.

 

Of course it is mostly about the movie itself and if it's popular they will find a way to play it as much as they can.

 

[redfirebird2008]

It is only a factor on opening weekend for really big openers.

[FrozenFan626]

Maybe initially there is some effect but in the grand scheme of things I wouldn't say shorter movies really benefit given that most of the top grossers (Avatar, Titantic, LOTR) all had super-long run-times. 

[a2k]

To me, the one movie that I didn't watch again in theaters, even though I liked it, just because of the running time was King Kong.

I think the more you go to the extremes of quality (horrible movies and great movies), the less the time matters. For movies in the middle it matters more.

[SchumacherFTW]

To me, the one movie that I didn't watch again in theaters, even though I liked it, just because of the running time was King Kong.I think the more you go to the extremes of quality (horrible movies and great movies), the less the time matters. For movies in the middle it matters more.

Pretty much this. People weren't going to skip TDKR even if it hit the 3 hour mark, but if something like Need for Speed were that long, they would have been in more trouble. Could that have made more if it trimmed half an hour? Who knows.

[Jonwo]

King Kong would have benefited from editing and a shorter running time, it would have been a great 2-2.5 hour film but at 3 hours, it does drag especially in the middle part of the film. 

 

Animated films tend to short as I imagine a long animated film would be boring for kids, most are between 90-110 minutes, Cars and The Incredibles are the longest animated films at 116 and 115 minutes but animated films used to be a lot shorter.