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Watching a movie is supposed to be a fairly manageable commitment. Then there are the films that make you check the runtime and wonder whether you should have packed dinner. Some epics genuinely need several hours to tell enormous stories, while others somehow turn a trip to the theater into an entire afternoon. Plenty of these movies are acclaimed, and a few are considered among the greatest ever made, but that doesn’t make reaching the credits any easier. Once the runtime starts creeping past three hours, even dedicated movie fans may find themselves checking the clock, planning an intermission, or quietly promising to finish the rest tomorrow. Here are 15 movies we don’t think anyone actually watched all the way through.
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The Irishman (2019)
Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic runs a staggering 3 hours and 29 minutes, following Frank Sheeran across several decades of organized crime. It’s an impressive achievement, but watching it at home without hitting pause at least once feels like an achievement of its own.
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The Brutalist (2024)
At 3 hours and 35 minutes, Brady Corbet’s historical drama is so long that its theatrical presentation actually includes a built-in intermission. The break certainly helps, but spending most of four hours following architect László Tóth still requires some serious commitment.
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Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Apparently Scorsese decided 209 minutes wasn’t enough of a challenge and returned with another epic running roughly 3 hours and 27 minutes. The sprawling Osage murder drama has plenty to justify its scale, but it also asks viewers to surrender a significant portion of their day.
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Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Sergio Leone’s crime epic stretches across decades of friendship, betrayal, and organized crime, with its full version running 229 minutes. That’s 3 hours and 49 minutes with Robert De Niro and company before those credits finally arrive.
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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
David Lean didn’t exactly believe in telling a historical epic quickly. The restored version of Lawrence of Arabia runs 3 hours and 47 minutes, although its enormous desert landscapes probably make a better argument for that length than most movies ever could.
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Ben-Hur (1959)
The famous chariot race is only one part of an epic that runs well over three hours. The standard runtime is 212 minutes even before accounting for the overture, intermission, and other elements traditionally included with its roadshow presentation.
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Gone with the Wind (1939)
Few movies earned the word “epic” quite as literally as Gone with the Wind. Its roughly four-hour runtime means sitting down to watch Scarlett O’Hara’s entire story requires the kind of advance planning normally associated with a road trip.
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Cleopatra (1963)
Elizabeth Taylor’s famously extravagant historical epic exists in several cuts, and none could exactly be described as brief. The roadshow version runs 4 hours and 8 minutes, while another restored version pushes the experience to 4 hours and 11 minutes.
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Hamlet (1996)
Kenneth Branagh decided that if he was going to adapt Hamlet, he wasn’t going to leave much Shakespeare behind. His unabridged adaptation runs just over four hours, making finishing “To be, or not to be” only part of the endurance test.
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Gettysburg (1993)
Gettysburg doesn’t merely cross the four-hour mark. The standard home-video version runs 4 hours and 14 minutes, while an even longer director’s cut exists for anyone who somehow reaches the end and wishes there were more.
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Heaven’s Gate (1980)
Michael Cimino’s notoriously massive Western originally ran 3 hours and 39 minutes before being dramatically shortened following its disastrous initial release. Later restorations brought the lengthy version back, giving modern viewers the chance to discover exactly how much Western they can handle in one sitting.
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The Ten Commandments (1956)
Cecil B. DeMille took 220 minutes to bring the biblical epic to the screen, and that’s without counting its overture, intermission, entr’acte, and exit music. Watching the complete roadshow presentation is practically an event in itself.
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Magnolia (1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson packs nine interconnected storylines and a huge ensemble into 3 hours and 8 minutes. It’s shorter than several movies on this list, but when the frogs haven’t even fallen yet and you’ve already been watching for hours, you definitely know you’re in for the long haul.
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Babylon (2022)
Damien Chazelle’s chaotic trip through early Hollywood clocks in at just over three hours. Between enormous parties, movie sets, career collapses, and seemingly every possible form of excess, Babylon doesn’t exactly make those 189 minutes feel uneventful.
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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
James Cameron waited 13 years to return to Pandora, so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that he gave audiences 192 minutes once he got there. The underwater spectacle looks enormous on a theater screen, although making it through 3 hours and 12 minutes without needing a bathroom break might be the movie’s real technical achievement.
The post 15 Movies We Don’t Think Anyone Actually Watched All the Way Through appeared first on Den of Geek.
