Thinking Weekly

With more anonymous Oscar voters admitting they refused to sit through films like Dune: Part Two and The Brutalist, and the international feature and documentary categories seeing the highest number of “abstain” votes this year, is the patience for cinema wearing thin?

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The Academy is made up of actors, directors, filmmakers, designers, and other industry professionals who have built their careers on a deep passion for cinema. So, seeing major publications report that anonymous voters openly admitted to skipping many of this year’s films is certainly surprising. But it also raises a larger question, has the way we engage with movies fundamentally changed? If the people who are creating these massive productions can’t even watch anything hitting the three hour mark, how is the average consumer supposed to?

This is not a critique on the films, longer films have been and will be around forever and are what they need to be. But it does suggest a shift in viewing habits, both from the industry professionals and the general public. In an era dominated by streaming, short-form content, and an overwhelming amount of entertainment options, the patience for long, demanding films seems to be dwindling.

Longer films used to be sign of prestigiousness, they used to be gigantic moments in pop culture that would have everyone flying to the cinema like vultures. But with our increasingly outrageous consumption habits mixed with almost everyone having a phone addiction, it’s hard to make anyone sit down an stay locked in for over 3 hours.

Going to the theater has always been a fundamental part of the cinematic experience, a social outing that brings people together to share a film in a communal setting. But in today’s world, is it the only way to get audiences to fully engage with a long movie without distractions? Or has the act of traveling to a theater and dedicating several hours to a single film become too much of a commitment for the general public?

If the very people who are shaping the industry are struggling to engage with longer films, what does that say about the future of cinema? Will we see a shift to 90 minute movies? The end of the theater? Or will people learn to adapt to longer films in the streaming era followed by a revival of the massive movie. It’s hard to tell which direction we’re headed in, but I hope to see more people being able to sit down and engage with these incredible films.