138 is a magic number. It's the average length, in minutes, of a Best Picture winner. Here are the running times of all winnners from longest to shortest. You'll see that the majority of winners are over 2 hours long which has caused no end of padding in "serious" movies but alas, not enough padding for tender buttocks watching the interminable movies.
Here are your Best Picture winners from longest film to the shortest.
- Gone With the Wind (1939) 238 minutes
Just two minutes shy of four hours, but worth every second. Lots of Gone With the Wind discussion here. Did you see its recent two day theatrical screening? - Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 216 minutes
- Ben-Hur (1959) 212 minutes
Currently in the process of being remade because that's how Hollywood do. Although this film was itself a remake so... we'll let it pass. Still there is no way its signature scene, the chariot race, will be as thrilling with CGI.
ˆˆˆ over 3½ hours ˆˆˆ - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 201 minutes
- The Godfather Part 2 (1974) 200 minutes
- Schindler's List (1993) 195 minutes
- Titanic (1997) 194 minutes
- Gandhi (1982) 191 minutes
- The Deer Hunter (1979) 182 minutes
- Dances With Wolves (1990) 181 minutes
ˆˆˆ over 3 hours ˆˆˆ
other long ass movies and how it relates to this year after the jump...
I only ever shouted "Freedom" when the insufferable movie ended! My vote for the worst Best Picture winner in my lifetime.
- Braveheart (1995) 177 minutes
- The Great Ziegfeld (1936) 176 miutes
- The Godfather (1972) 175 minutes
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) 175 minutes
- The Sound of Music (1965) 174 minutes
- Patton (1970) 172 minutes
- The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) 172 minutes
- My Fair Lady (1964) 170 minutes
- The Last Emperor (1987) 163 minutes
- The English Patient (1996) 162 minutes
- Out of Africa (1985) 161 minutes
- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) 161 minutes
- Amadeus (1984) 160 minutes
- Gladiator (2000) 155 minutes
- Hamlet (1948) 155 minutes
- Oliver! (1968) 153 minutes
- West Side Story (1961) 152 minutes
- The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) 152 minutes
- The Departed (2006) 151 minutes
ˆˆˆ over 2½ hours ˆˆˆ
Wings is long for a non DW Griffith silent. Thank god it's so good! - Wings (1927) 144 minutes
- Forrest Gump (1994) 142 minutes
- All About Eve (1950) 138 minutes
- All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 136 minutes
- A Beautiful Mind (2001) 135 minutes
- 12 Years a Slave (2013) 134 minutes
- Mrs. Miniver (1942) 134 minutes
- Rain Man (1988) 133 minutes
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 133 minutes
- Terms of Endearment (1983) 132 minutes
- Million Dollar Baby (2004) 132 minutes
- Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) 132 minutes
- Unforgiven (1992) 131 minutes
- The Hurt Locker (2008) 131 minutes
- Rebecca (1940) 130 minutes
- The Sting (1973) 129 minutes
- Tom Jones (1963) 128 minutes
- You Can't Take It With You (1938) 126 minutes
- Going My Way (1944) 126 minutes
- The Apartment (1960) 125 minutes
- Chariots of Fire (1981) 124 minutes
- Ordinary People (1980) 124 minutes
- Shakespeare in Love (1998) 123 minutes
- Cimarron (1931) 123 minutes
- No Country For Old Men (2007) 122 minutes
- American Beauty (1999) 122 minutes
ˆˆˆ over 2 hours ˆˆˆ
Annie Hall = Biggest Ratio of Minutes (93) to Laughs (Hundreds) - Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 120 minutes
- Platoon (1986) 120 minutes
- Argo (20120 120 minutes
- A Man For All Seaons (1966) 120 minutes
- Rocky (1976) 119 minutes
- From Here To Eternity (1953) 118 minutes
- The King's Speech (2010) 118 minutes
- The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 118 minutes
- How Green Was My Valley (1941) 118 minutes
- Gentleman's Agreement (1947) 118 minutes
- The Life of Emile Zola (1937) 116 minutes
- Gigi (1958) 115 minutes
- Midnight Cowboy (1969) 113 minutes
- Chicago (2002) 113 minutes
- An American in Paris (1951) 113 minutes
- Crash (2005) 112 minutes
- Grand Hotel (1932) 112 minutes
- Cavalcade (1933) 112 minutes
- All The King's Men (1949) 110 minutes
- In the Heat of the Night (1967) 109 minutes
- On the Waterfront (1954) 108 minutes
- Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) 105 minutes
- It Happened One Night (1934) 105 minutes
- The French Connection (1971) 104 minutes
- Casablanca () 102 minutes
- The Lost Weekend (1945) 101 minutes
- The Artist (2011) 100 minutes
- The Broadway Melody (1929) 100 minutes
- Driving Miss Daisy (1989) 99 minutes
- Sunrise (1927) 94 minutes *for the nitpickers: yes, technically this is not a best picture winner but the winner of "Best Unique and Artistic Quality of Production" a category that was only given in Oscar's first year when they were figuring things out and had essentially two different Best Picture categories, the other was called "Outstanding Picture" which Wings won.
- Annie Hall (1977) 93 minutes
ˆˆˆ over 1½ hours ˆˆˆ - Marty (1955) 90 minutes
Fascinating that 90-95 minutes, in my opinion the average perfect length for most motion pictures, is so underrepresented.
"But how does this relate to this year, Nathaniel?" Well thanks for asking, dear reader. Here are the running times of films that are hoping to be in the running for Best Picture From longest to shortest
INTERSTELLAR - 169 minutes
BOYHOOD -165 minutes
(If either Interstellar or Boyhood wins Best Picture, The English Patient gets bumped from the top 20 longest BP winners list. What would Elaine Benes make of all these 3 hour dramas?)
MR TURNER - 150 minutes
GONE GIRL - 145 minutes
UNBROKEN - 137 minutes
AMERICAN SNIPER - 134 minutes
FOXCATCHER - 130 minutes
INTO THE WOODS - 124 minutes
THEORY OF EVERYTHING - 123 minutes
BIRDMAN - 119 minutes
WILD - 115 minutes
THE IMITATION GAME -113 minutes
WHIPLASH - 106 minutes
GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL - 100 minutes
American Sniper and Unbroken, two late arrivals are the closest to your Best Picture average length. A slight mitigating note: the most common actual specific running time for Best Picture winners is 118 minutes (5 films)... and none of these films pull that off either.
You're welcome math nerds.
Why do you think Oscar likes its movies so long and what's your ideal movie length in a perfect world? (Don't chicken out and answer "depends on the story" I'm talking ideal template to aspire to though some stories would obviously do well to be shorter and others longer - that should go without saying.)