9 Movies Audiences Think Went On For Way, Way Too Long

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in a still from 2024’s Wicked movie

If you think movies have gotten darker and quieter over the past few years, it’s not just your age ― lighting and dialogue set-ups really have changed.

And if you’ve felt like films have been dragging on for longer than you’re used to, that’s not just in your head either.

“In 2023, the average length of the top 10 highest-grossing movies in the United States and Canada amounted to… two hours and 23 minutes. This figure is almost 30 minutes higher than the average recorded in 2020,” Statista wrote.

The longest film in the top 10 in 1990, meanwhile, lasted two hours and seven minutes.

So, I was interested to read responses to u/phantom_avenger’s post shared to Reddit’s r/moviecritic: “What movie made you go ‘Holy shit, there is still an hour left?’”, they asked.

Here are some of the most-upvoted replies:

1) The Irishman (2019)

“It actually made me go ‘holy shit, there’s two and a half hours left?!’”.

Credit: u/JohnnyWeapon

u/FizzyBeverage added: “I suspect the editors were afraid to tell Scorsese that eight hours of footage is excessive and the story can be easily told in two hours. 3.5 hours is out of control. Not every frame is a gem.”

2) Oppenheimer (2023)

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Redditor u/Ok-Future6470 added: “Felt like I was in that movie theatre for a week. Checked the date, not the time, when it finally finished.”

3) No Time To Die (2021)

“The last James Bond movie. He had plenty of time to die. Too much time.”

Credit:u/Soggy_Instruction224

u/topological_rabbit said: “I found myself uttering the eight deadly words: ‘I don’t care what happens to these people.’”

4) Wicked (2024)

“I’m sure I’ll get roasted, but wow, did I not enjoy that movie.”

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u/OpeningChipmunk1700 commented: “It’s crazy that part one of two was itself longer than the entire musical.”

5) The Batman (2022)

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“The last 45 minutes were so unnecessary,” u/DonBandolini wrote.

6) Downsizing (2017)

“Holy hell. That movie should have been over after 30 minutes but it just kept going.”

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u/DibsMine says they think the movie feels like “three screenplays shoved into one movie.”

7) The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

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“Which is wild because the first one was so compelling and tight and perfectly paced that it felt like all of 30 minutes,” u/Kipp_it_100 chimed in.

8) Every Peter Jackson Hobbit movie

Credit: u/Njp1979

“The Hobbit movies really mess with the space-time continuum because they were at once waaaay too long, and yet an unbelievable amount of nothing happened in each one,” u/reddituserperson1122 responded.

“I’ve never before had the experience of being like, ‘How can this song still be going on? It’s not possible,’ followed by, ‘Wait, how can this movie be over already?’. I get a headache just thinking about it.”