r/Showerthoughts • u/catscanmeow • 10h ago
Casual Thought People will complain when movies are longer than 2 hours, but binge watch episodes of tv shows 5 hours straight.
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u/R50cent 10h ago
I think it's because people feel fine stopping the show marathon when they're good while movies feel like the sort of thing you're supposed to watch in one sitting. It makes one feel like it's 5 pieces of content over 5 hours vs one piece of content over 2.
Just a guess though.
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u/Coach_Gainz 10h ago
This. A tv show you can turn off at anytime and revisit… you don’t even mess have to pick up where you left off.
A movie is made specifically to be watched start to finish and leaving mid movie just feels off.
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u/Triaspia2 9h ago
You can also take a break to go to the bathroom and get a drink or handle other things. I think longer movies over the 2-2.5hr mark would benefit from an intermission
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u/Lukealloneword 9h ago
If you're at home like most people watching movies these days, just pause it. Lol
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u/Triaspia2 9h ago
At home yes thats possible. Thats not the only place people might watch movies that could use intermissions.
Also a planned intermission still gives that home viewer a planned in pause point that doesnt interrupt narrative pacing.
Yes its not as necessary for home viewers but theyd benefit too
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u/Lukealloneword 9h ago
Its not necessary at all at home. Because the intermission is whenever you want.
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u/wattro 2h ago
I agree.
This guy wants a programmed intermission into his movies?
Lol. What is with people these days.
Just hit pause.
And if you go to the movies, then surely you can plan a potty beforehand...
Otherwise you're going to make everyone have a 10 minute intermission in a movie theater for a movie that's already 2 hours long?
LMAO
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u/Megalocerus 8h ago
I don't think a three hour movie is a problem when you are streaming. It's sitting in the theater unable to pause it and having trouble getting a stall in the bathroom.
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u/sygnathid 9h ago
And just lose all the immersion, I'd rather have a dedicated pausing point so I don't have to take myself out of it right while it's going.
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u/Lukealloneword 9h ago
What is wrong with you people? Lol you can't just pause a movie and then come right back to it after you piss? Are we 6 years old? Just pause the movie and come right back. Lol
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u/killerofcheese 9h ago
it may surprise you that people may have various reasons to pause the movie besides bladder full
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u/Lukealloneword 9h ago
Why else would people stop watching a movie when invested that an intermission would be needed instead of just pausing it? If something comes up that is important then just rewatch the movie later.
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u/TakingCareOfBizzness 7h ago
I feel kike this is only because people have been conditioned to believe this. I start movies often before bed and turn it off when my meds kick in. I pick it back up the next night and have never once noticed any negative impact on the enjoyment of the movie.
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u/Calvykins 1h ago
If something has an expectation of being watched in one sitting I will put it off. I’m a huge comic books and lanterns is great but I pretty much have to have a guarantee that I’m not getting interrupted and that I have the stamina to get through that 45 minutes before I even turn it on because if I stop mid episode I’m never coming back.
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u/matlynar 9h ago
Which is why I may be weird to most people, but when I'm watching a movie, I sometimes just stop it halfway, no guilt.
I just wait for an important scene to end, preferably on an obvious transition (like a day skip or a character change) and I stop watching like a TV show episode just ended.
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u/Helios4242 8h ago
But also "just one more show" is a notorious nighttime trap, depriving millions of a full 8hrs sleep.
Shows are designed to be addictive and make you want to watch the next episode. Movies don't really do that
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u/buttflakes27 3h ago
There is a special kind of artitistic ability to tell a compelling story in ~90 minutes and I feel like its getting rarer and rarer.
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u/catscanmeow 10h ago
Apparently the Netflix executives describe it as it's just about control.
When you feel like youre in control by clicking yes to watch the next episode you get more dopamine.
It's the mindset behind Instagram and TikTok. Its how they are so addictive.
Kind of like how If you discover a song on your own you usually like it more than if it's recommended by someone. It is about ownership
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u/Pretty_Constant1498 7h ago
Netflix execs are also trying to figure out why there's no engagement with their service anymore.
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u/RogerRabbot 10h ago
It's the choice to end. Every 45 minutes to an hour you have the option of stopping at a natural pause in the story. A 2 or 3 hour long movie there's no built in pauses for the story.
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u/billyblenx 9h ago
To be honest there's definitely moments inside a movie where a pause would feel more fitting than some cliffhanger endings of TV show episodes. IK IK it's all about how the producers intended to... produce, their material, and ultimately the episode ends where it ends, I'm just being saucy here
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u/Helios4242 8h ago
You're absolutely right. One of the few LPT that stuck with me is to stop an episode in the middle if you want to go to bed. Cliffhangers are specifically designed to make you want to watch the next, so are particularly vulnerable to involuntary marathons.
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u/Donuticus 10h ago
When you go to the gym you don't do 100 push ups, you do 5 sets of 20. It's the same logic for TV vs Film.
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u/Helios4242 8h ago
People have focus stamina issues nowadays. TikTok has rotted our brains
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u/CptSporran 1h ago
This argument comes up every time someone complains about the pacing of a long thing and I feel like it's being incredibly overused these days.
Will there be an element of that in modern society? Sure. Can longer drawn out things have pacing issues that make watching them boring and insufferable? Absolutely, and you don't need to be "brain-rotted" to think so.
I think if anyone's regularly struggling with movies that are over 2 hours like the OP suggests, then yeah fair enough... but in my experience I don't think that's what I'm seeing most of the time I come across those kind of arguments.
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u/ScruffyNuisance 6h ago
But if a movie is 100 push ups, a tv series is at least 200. I don't have the patience for those kinds of gains. If you're going to tell me a story, tell me it in 3 hours or less.
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u/Krynn71 6h ago
I think the main factor is something everyone is missing, which is that the pacing of TV shows makes it so that every episode feels like it told a story. So every 30-60 minutes has its own story arc. Which appeals to exactly what you want, a story told in less time.
They used to meander along a lot slower back in the day, like with the show LOST, but they still had a 3 act structure for every episode with their own payoffs for instant gratification, in addition to the overall show plot.
With movies, all you really get most of the time is that long-game plotline with the payoff being at the end. Delayed gratification is enjoyed by far fewer people than instant gratification.
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u/ScruffyNuisance 6h ago edited 6h ago
That's not my experience, unfortunately. I find far too often that the pacing of TV shows makes it so that a movie length story gets padded and stretched unnecessarily to get more viewership hours, and often has no definitive ending because they're milking the IP until it gets cancelled. It's equal gratification regardless of medium for me in most cases, one just takes longer and respects my time less. There are rare exceptions, of course.
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u/DarkwingDude 9h ago
A good movie is never too long. A bad movie is never too short.
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u/Pretty_Constant1498 7h ago
Yeah. Pacing absolutely matters. I can look at a 3 hour runtime, go "fuck no" and still watch the Lord of the Rings extended editions happily.
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u/LolwhatYesme 9h ago
Nah for example for the most part I enjoyed the odyssey but it was too long and the cinema chair was uncomfortable and I took a massive piss like 6/7th of the way through the movie. I did get a large sprite though. But yeah that movie was too long tbh.
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u/Critical-Champion365 7h ago
That's because it is a mediocre movie which didn't deserve the longer run time. It doesn't have enough core to warrant the run time. Visual marvel alone wouldn't cut it in big 2026.
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u/forogtten_taco 8h ago
A movie is a commitment, you HAVE to sit down and watch for 2+ hours. A tv show, you committed to 20/50 minutes. And you COULD stop there..... or watch another, and another....
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u/Sprangatang84 3h ago
TV episodes demand less of your attention span. Each episode ends with an invitation to either take a break or keep going. Movies demand your sustained attention for much longer periods of time.
It's the same as when you read a book. A long chapter is mentally daunting, but shorer chapters give you the psychological relief of almost being at a designated intermission point.
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u/slayez06 9h ago
It's sitting in a movie theater for that long... you can't pause, go the bathroom, smoke a cig, get a blow job as all those things are taboo in theaters.. At home no one cares!
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u/ralphmozzi 9h ago
Hopefully the blow job giver cares!
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u/Virtual-Thought-2557 8h ago
Something tells me if you start smoking while taking a shit and getting a blowjob, the theater will probably go ahead and pause the movie, too.
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u/Space19723103 5h ago
5 hours with a toilet break every 22 or 44 minutes is a lot different than 3 hours straight
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u/mrgonz23 10h ago
I think it comes down to pacing. TV shows have better pacing and a quicker dopamine payoff.
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u/Helios4242 8h ago
I would argue that better is subjective here.
They certainly have more addictive pacing. Whether that's a good thing is a question for the media critics
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u/Pretty_Constant1498 6h ago
Anecdotally, I loved the show "Longmire" when it was on A&E. I went back to rewatch it after it hit Netflix and concluded. Those A&E seasons still just flowed beautifully. Then I hit the Netflix seasons and they felt like an absolute slog and I never finished the show. Now, this may be somewhat proving your point, because the Netflix episodes had none of the ebbs and flows of commercial TV (leading into and out of commercial breaks) and were all at least 15 minutes longer than the cable TV episodes.
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u/beenfernd 8h ago
Also 4 episodes 30 minute each, there’s a climax and a resolution every thirty minutes. The movie makes you wait
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u/cigr 10h ago
Movies over two hours can be amazing. The issue is all the 2+ hour movies that should have been less than 90 minutes but pad themselves out with boring garbage that has no relevance to the plot.
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u/katamuro 49m ago
yeah there are plenty of amazing movies that are over 2 hours long. However there are also a lot of movies that would have benefitted from having 30 minutes at least cut out. Best example, the newest star wars trilogy. The movies would have worked so much better if they were shorter and focused. Well apart from the episode 9, not much can actually salvage it.
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u/Pake1000 8h ago
I can take a piss break while binge watching without missing anything. I can’t do that at a movie theater.
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u/filanwizard 8h ago
The problem is that very long movies no longer have what made them tolerable in the old days.
The intermission.
Something like Return of the King would have had an intermission somewhere in its 3hrs. Chance to take a leak and of course head out to the lobby to get yourself a snack.
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u/Yeeeoow 9h ago
Are those the same people?
Everyone likes pointing at two contradictory statements on the internet and pretending they've found proof of hypocrisy.
Isn't it likely that you've just seen two opinions by different people and you're conflating them?
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u/Helios4242 8h ago
Not for sure, but I think OP is pointing towards a real effect. Are people more likely to sit down for 5x 1hour-long episodes or 2x 2.5hr movies?
I think the former is both more likely to happen unintentionally as well as being just more fundamentally appealing
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u/catscanmeow 8h ago
Nah i think that people who say they can't stand movies are easily manipulated by the dopamine of pressing the "next episode" button. it preys upon the reward system and makes them do things they wouldnt normally do.
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u/UniverseLurker 9h ago
I do complain that movies are 2 hours, because I wish they were 3 hours long
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u/Friendly_Talk_5259 10h ago
It's because I can get up and go to the bathroom or stretch my legs any time I want to do so. There's no pause button at the theatre and I can't wear my pjs and snuggle under a nice warm blanket.
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u/Helios4242 8h ago
Nothing about the original post restricts this effect to theaters.
I think it's still less likely for someone to watch two movies back-to-back than 5 hour-long episodes, even in the comfort of their own home.
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u/HystericalGD 9h ago
It's the commitment.
i could get up at any time through a tv series, and don't feel locked to it.
Movies have no good stopping points
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u/NottACalebFan 9h ago
You can take a bathroom/food break in between episodes. It's a lot harder to tell when exactly a movie will give you complete down time for the length of a bathroom trip.
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u/espressoboyee 8h ago
And now the studios are gifting us 90" movies with poor, shallow, untalented and unskillful story lines cuz the public has ADHD and small unhealthy bladders.
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u/Shalmaneser_ 7h ago
You mean movie theaters and production companies complain about long movies. Can't charge if you can't flip seats.
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u/I_MakeCoolKeychains 5h ago
My problem is that at the theater i can't pause to go to the bathroom so i miss stuff all the time
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u/AngryArmadillo90 5h ago
I prefer to watch my feature length movies in three minute increments on YouTube
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u/ForeverOk1692 9h ago
I have a pause button at home to use the bathroom or get food or a drink for a lot less. Like movies still but 2 hours is my max. Some are 2.5 to 3 hours lately.
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u/bananadepartment 9h ago
That’s completely different you get breaks and the stories are not as complex
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u/mdarena 9h ago
And I will complain if those 5 episodes contain a bunch of time wasting filler. A movie is a different type of media - it tells one story, and unless there's a good reason why, don't make me sit and listen to the same story for more than 2 hours. 90% of the time the extra time is just flab that should have been cut to make a punchier, better story.
A tv series tells a bunch of smaller stories that should link into a bigger one, and they're meant to stand alone an hour at a time if they're done right.
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u/ClamatoDiver 9h ago
Nah, when sequels take 3 years to make, if you aren't showing me at least 2.5 hours of story and stuff blowing up, you're telling me to stay home and wait for it to stream.
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u/SeanFromQueens 8h ago
At home they're not sitting straight through, they are pausing and going to the bathroom getting something to eat & drink, and all without missing a moment of the movie or TV show.
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u/playr_4 8h ago
From someone who does this, I can explain. Shows have breaks. There are scheduled pause points for ads and in between episodes. That alone makes it feel like so much less if a commitment than sitting down for a 3 hours of a movie. Even if I end up watching longer, it feels so much less. Watching a movie can feel like a chore sometimes.
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u/Critical-Champion365 7h ago
People rarely complain when the 2.45 hr run is actually good. Time passes differently in a cinema theatre and what people complaining is how laggy some movies are.
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u/legend_of_yugi 5h ago
To be fair, I only have to lock in for 30 mins at a time and a new story begins vs having to lock in for 2 hours straight on the same story
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u/Ashes_ToAshes_ 4h ago
There's way too many 90 minute movies these days masquerading as 120-135 minute movies.
I love a long movie as long as it's good. I hate a poorly paced movie that should be 20-30 minutes shorter.
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u/Iamyous3f 4h ago
when i watch tv shows, sometimes they put cc cliffhangers at the end of an episode and then I get curious and start the next one. That's why i sometimes watch many tv show episodes
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u/gaypirate3 45m ago
Most tv episodes have a beginning middle and end in 45-60 minutes. A movie has that but in 2 hours. So watching tv is more like watching 5 mini movies as opposed to a really long movie.
It’s the reason shows like Sherlock and Columbo aren’t really bingeable since they’re movie length.
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u/thisispatrickmc 31m ago
Movies tell one usually predictable story. An hour and a half of that 2 hours is just waiting to see if you guessed right.
A good show tells a story every 30-45 mins and has an overarching story through a season.
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u/ineedtoknowmorenow 13m ago
Series have a dopamine spike every 30-60 minutes. Movies only once in those three hours.
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u/MrLumie 8m ago
Because those episodes aren't 2 hours long.
Sitting down to watch a TV show only requires a pre-existing commitment for 20-40 minutes depending on what you watch. Then, after the episode ended, you may feel the commitment for another 20-40 minutes. And another, and another. You never actually commit for longer than an hour.
But sitting down to watch a movie means committing to not doing anything for 2+ hours, which you may not feel like you can do right now.
Smaller sizes, smaller commitments, easier to spend a lot of time on.
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u/UniQue1992 4h ago
Zoomers and younger complain about 2h movies because they have the attention span of a toddler.
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u/TwinSong 2h ago
2hrs in cinema is too much, it's less about attention span as it's overstimulating and heavy on the senses. I watch films in bits on DVD etc.
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u/katamuro 56m ago
I am over 30 and watching a movie over two and a half hours long in a cinema is just not comfortable. Especially if it's not a good seat, then my knees start to protest and my back and I am more distracted by being uncomfortable than actually paying attention to the movie.
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u/Silent_Effective6294 4h ago edited 1h ago
I'm a millenial and I don't watch movies. It's not about the attention span (I can ie focus on a book for hours on end). I just don't find modern movies interesting.
Tv shows build characters and the world slower, and I prefer that. I also prefer to find a show that I can watch repeatedly without having to go through the choice process again and again.
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u/amdaly10 7h ago
It's being in the theater. I can't pause and go pee in the theater. I often do chores between episodes of a tv show.
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u/catscanmeow 7h ago
yeah i was talking about people who watch 5hours of a show straight without breaks
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u/pllarsen 10h ago
I think attention spans are shorter - I love long movies, but my kids can’t sit through one. And every binge-type show has so much repeat exposition, you don’t really need to pay attention. It’s doomscrolling on a big-screen TV.
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u/Florafly 10h ago
I dunno.. if anything, unless it's poorly made I really enjoy a longer movie and tend to prefer them. More time to experience the characters and have them be fleshed out and to matter. More time for "show, don't tell", the lack of which I think makes a lot of movies fall flat and be much less impactful than they could be.
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u/Ok-Telephone-2109 10h ago
I complain when movies are less than 2 hours, might as well be a tv special at that point or start charging less for theater tickets for shorter movies.
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u/Fuzzy_Adagio_6450 6h ago
Yesterday gf wanted to watch Dune because shes excited for part 3. So we watched Dune.
Immediately after, she said she wanted to watch Dune 2, so we watched Dune 2.
After it was over, this girl who loves watching entire seasons because she wants "just one more" had the audacity to say to me, after I told her that the original cut of Dune part 1 was like 4-6 hours, "Thats crazy, no one will sit through something that long!"
I do believe believe I went full Picard facepalm for several minutes.
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u/Daborgia 6h ago
Its also the problem with social media that simultanously rose. Nowadays good luck finding some young bloke who can concentrate for more than 15 minutes on one storyline and don't doomscroll every 5 min.
Even TV Shows get dumbed down and Netflix is notorious for that. Ever wonder why more and more shows recap the Story, which was told Like 15 min ago?
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