Darryl Wiggers writes:



>The only obvious change I've noticed is that almost no new films have a

>running time shorter than 80 minutes. In the early days of cinema it was

>possible for a 56-minute film to be released as a "feature." By the late

>1950s the shortest films were about 80 minutes, and that seems to be the

>standard that has stuck. Nowadays only independent films and Woody Allen

>seem to allow for a less-than-90 rule.



Before the fragmentation of the film industry from the late 40s onwards (i.e.

the process of demerging production/distribution from the exhibition sector,

which had its origins in the 'Paramount case' antitrust suit of 1947), the

exhibition practice of the vertically integrated combines was for each

performance to include two features (plus, commercials, trailers, newsreel,

cartoon &c.): a main, or 'A' film and a lower-budget 'B' feature which was

usually substantially shorter. It was this category of release that was

usually between 50 and 80 minutes. The total length of each performance was

tightly controlled, and an usually long main feature required an abnormally

short second film to fill the programme.



There were a number of reasons why double-feature programming declined:

competition from other leisure activities pushing cinema exhibition to adopt

new technologies which emphasised quality of experience over total programme

length being one of the main factors. For more on this see John Belton,

'Widescreen Cinema' (Harvard UP, 1992).



One thing that has surprised me a little bit about the more recent trend

toward longer features is that cinemas are not trying to charge higher

admission prices for 8 reel-plus films. Longer films mean less screenings per

day and so presumably these films reduce the total throughput of customers and

consequently reduce the exhibitor's profit margin. From my time working in

cinema exhibition I can remember that after the distributor and the taxman had

taken their cut (typically 40% and 30% respectively), the proportion of a

cinema's income that derived from box office sales was actually pretty low.

The real money is to be made in coke and popcorn sales. A lower throughput of

customers means lower concession sales too, so all in all I would have

expected considerable exhibitor resistance to the increasing number of

three-hour epics, but that does not seem to have been the case.



Leo



Dr. Leo Enticknap

Director, Northern Region Film and Television Archive

School of Arts and Media

University of Teesside

Middlesbrough TS1 3BA

United Kingdom

Tel. (0)1642 384022

Fax. (0)1642 384099

Brainfryer: (0)7710 417383



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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite

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