Actually there are a lot of answers to this question but I want to bring up one specific answer because an insane number jumped out at me this morning.
For a hundred years, the economics of Theater-going required that theaters be able to schedule enough showings during a business day to make showing the movie worth their cost. That’s, essentially, where the two hour tradition comes from. Some movies are shorter and some are longer, but two hours has always been the pivot point around which most movies hinged. It’s the reason why Directors’ contracts often have a maximum length built right into the deal.
But streaming has changed that calculus. Streamers don’t care about “showings” because a showing starts whenever an individual movie watcher presses “play.” The goal is no longer to get one group of paying customers out of the building to make room for the next group, the goal now is to convince people to sit in front of their TVs for as long as possible.
And so my eyes bugged out of my head this morning when I saw the running time for Disney’s CRUELLA DeVILLE origin story…
134 freakin’ minutes!
For a streaming network that’s supposed to aimed at families and their kids, I’m often left to wonder if anyone at Disney has ever actually met a kid.