Walking up to the movie theater and taking in a big whiff of buttered popcorn can put a smile on anyone’s face. However, those smiles might not be as big when leaving the theater because everyone’s butt is in pain after sitting for three hours. Visiting the movie theater has become an event. It is not simply about the film, but about the entire experience. The experience feels like it is getting longer as many of today’s blockbuster movies run for over two hours. Are all movies actually getting longer or just certain genres?

Cierra Garcia, a junior human physiology major, has no problem walking out of a theater. “I base the quality of a movie off of content and production; however, no matter how amazing a movie is, I would rather not sit for three hours in a movie theater,” Garcia said.

Since feature films were first created, there have been movies that critics believed needed to show more and movies that needed to show less. Some of the highest-grossing films of all time are long, but a film’s length does not determine its quality. Many are lengthy and are still not great. While others, such as Stand By Me (1986) at 89 minutes, are relatively short and remarkable.

Cinema studies instructor Stephen Rust believes that there are length expectations for certain genres.

“I’ve been to plenty of movies that could have benefited from some more concise editing choices. But since running times for genre films have been developed over a hundred plus years of cinema, it can feel like action adventure films for example just ‘shouldn’t be’ longer than two hours,” he said.

Throughout cinematic history, many of the highest-grossing films have been lengthy such as The Sound of Music (1965) at 174 minutes and Titanic (1997) at 194 minutes. However, many of today’s movies are longer because they are action films that require many special effects. As special effects have become more prominent in films, the technology has also improved, lowering the cost. Filmmakers are now trying to squeeze in as many exciting scenes as possible. According to Rust, filmmakers must make movies with long running times in order to get at least some plot development.

Increasing the length seems only to add unnecessary plot points that often make the movie feel like it is going in circles. Movies such as Avatar (2009) at 162 minutes and Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) at 165 minutes have multiple fighting scenes that serve the same purpose for the plot and generally have the same effect on the audience. After watching computer generated imagery fights for two hours, most of the audience has lost interest.

Long movies aren’t a problem. The problem is deciding which stories need to be long and which stories need to be short. If a movie is full of thought provoking instances and can make the viewer feel something for three hours then it should be three hours. If a movie is full of cartoon robots fighting for three hours then its length needs to be reconsidered.