Are movies too long nowadays? Here's what Yahoo readers think

Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After 72 hours the poll closes and, each Friday, we'll publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

Are movies getting too long? A recent poll of American filmgoers claimed that the ideal film length is 92 minutes long, while only 2% of the people polled were happy with films running for longer than 150 minutes. People are more time poor than ever with diminishing attention spans so you can understand the desire for snappy 90 minute movies.

The last few years have seen Hollywood leaning towards lengthier cinematic epics, with runtimes that stretch well beyond the two-hour mark, challenging the bladders and patience of audiences worldwide.

From superhero sagas to sprawling biopics, the time commitment required for these films is growing, paralleling the ever-expanding narrative ambitions of filmmakers.

But at what point does a longer runtime detract from the enjoyment and accessibility of a film?

Yahoo UK asked our readers 'How many minutes is the ideal movie length?' here are the results:

It received 906 votes and showed that Yahoo readers were more tolerant with movie lengths, with 152 minutes — just over two and a half hours — being the ideal movie length for our readers. Classic movies that clock in at a similar time include Inglorious Basterds (153 mins), Pulp Fiction (154 mins), The Departed (151 mins), There Will Be Blood (158 mins), Amadeus (160 mins), Zodiac (157 mins), and The Dirty Dozen (150 mins), so they might be on to something.

120 minutes was also a popular choice with our readers.

Yahoo News UK readers were also asked: 'How important is a movie's length in your decision to watch it?'

This poll received 717 votes with the most common vote being 8/10, indicating many readers took the length of a movie to be an important factor in their movie-watching decisions.

The average strength-of-feeling score on all the votes was 6/10.

Our original poll article can be found here.

According to Talker Research, an online survey of 2,000 Americans showed that 92 minutes is the preferred movie run time for audiences in the USA.

Fifteen per cent said that 120 minute films were acceptable, while only two per cent approved of movies over 150 minutes long.

The Guardian added context saying that nine of out the ten highest-grossing movies of all time were over two hours long, and three of those being over three hours long: Avengers: Endgame, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Titanic,

Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles