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Christopher Nolan, director of the three-hour-long film Oppenheimer, defended long runtimes.
Nolan recently spoke about long runtimes and doesn't think it's the length that is the issue (via @NolanAnalyst on X). “I've been working in films now for, I don't know, 25 years. And I've been hearing for all that time how young people's attention spans are getting shorter. I don't think it to be true at all,” he said. “It was an interesting conversation with the studio [Universal] because I presented them with a three hour script, 180 page script. I said the film is going to need to be three hours. But the most successful film in America at the time was Robert Downey Jr.'s Avengers Endgame, three hours and two minutes.”
He continued by pointing out the issue of a film being engaging, not just the runtime. “So if you look at the history of movies, the most successful films tend to be quite long actually. I think the issue with length is if you're engaged with a movie and the movie's working for you and you're drawn in, a three hour running time is completely fine. If you're not liking the movie, a three hour running time is going to feel very, very long,” Nolan said.
In conclusion, “So yes, I suppose in some senses, it feels like a bit of a risk to make such a big story, but there was no other way to tell Oppenheimer's story. And the plan was always for the film to be three hours.”
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Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a three-hour exploration of the career of the titular physicist (played by Cillian Murphy). The film observes his part in the Manhattan Project and the development of the first nuclear weapons.
While Oppenheimer is long, the film has grossed over $850 million to date. Clearly, audiences are engaged in Nolan's latest, and that's a good sign for movie theaters, studios, and creatives alike.
Oppenheimer is in theaters now.
