文章來源：《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》Oct 21th 2023 期 Culture 欄目 Movie marathons 電影馬拉松

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為什么電影變得這么長？

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Want to know?what is coming soon to a cinema near you??Probably not an hour-and-a-half-long movie, as in the old days.?This year audiences have endured the longest?instalments?yet in the “Indiana Jones”, “John Wick” and “Mission: Impossible”?franchises.?“Oppenheimer”, Christopher Nolan’s three-hour?blockbuster, required 11 miles (18km) of film stock for IMAX showings.

想知道你家附近的電影院即將上映什么電影嗎？可能已經(jīng)沒有以前那種1.5小時的電影了。今年，觀眾們觀看了《奪寶奇兵》、《疾速追殺》和《碟中諜》系列大片中最長的一部。克里斯托弗·諾蘭執(zhí)導(dǎo)的《奧本海默》時長達(dá)3小時，IMAX放映膠片長達(dá)11英里（18公里）。

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On October 20th comes “Killers of the Flower Moon” (pictured), a grisly western from the director Martin Scorsese.?At nearly three and a half hours, its length is nearly double that of the average film last year.?Even movie buffs struggle to concentrate for that long.?During the?premiere?at the Cannes Film Festival in May, some viewers dozed off.?Afterwards there was a mad dash (and long queue) for the toilets. When did watching a film become such a?slog?

10月20日，馬丁·斯科塞斯執(zhí)導(dǎo)的西部驚悚片《花月殺手》（如圖）上映。電影時長近3.5小時，幾乎是去年平均電影時長的2倍。就連電影迷也難以集中注意力這么長時間。5月戛納電影節(jié)首映期間，一些觀眾打起了瞌睡。觀影后，人們飛奔進(jìn)廁所（排起了長隊），從何時起觀影變得如此辛苦呢？

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The Economist analysed over 100,000 feature films released internationally since the 1930s, the start of Hollywood’s golden age, using data from IMDb, a movie database.?The average length of productions has crept up by around 24%, from one hour and 21 minutes in the 1930s to one hour and 47 minutes in 2022.?Blockbusters are the worst offenders. For the ten most-popular titles (measured by how many reviewers rated the films on IMDb) average lengths stretched to around two and a half hours in 2022, nearly 50% higher than in the 1930s.

《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》使用電影數(shù)據(jù)庫 IMDb 的數(shù)據(jù)，分析了自1930年代好萊塢黃金時代開始以來在全球上映的10多萬部劇情電影。電影平均時長增加了24%左右，從 1930 年代的1小時21分鐘增加到2022年的 1 小時 47 分鐘。大片是“超長重災(zāi)區(qū)”。2022 年，十大最受歡迎的影片（根據(jù)IMDb上的影評人數(shù)）的平均時長至2.5小時左右，比1930年代高出了近 50%。

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Film-makers began churning out?protracted?pictures in the early 1960s.?Cinema was booming and?auteurs?wanted to distinguish their art from television.?Epics graced the silver screen, including “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), which surpassed the three-and-a-half hour mark, and “Cleopatra” (1963), which originally exceeded four hours but was later cut down.?Back then, audiences enjoyed an intermission while the projectionist prepared the reels for the next act.?Runtimes of popular films?ebbed and flowed?over subsequent decades (and stretched long in some countries, such as India, known for its Bollywood?sagas). But they have ballooned since 2018.

1960年代初，電影制片人開始大量制作長篇電影。電影行業(yè)蓬勃發(fā)展，導(dǎo)演們希望將電影與電視區(qū)分開來。屏幕上出現(xiàn)了史詩巨制，包括《阿拉伯的勞倫斯》（1962 年），片長超過3.5小時，以及《埃及艷后》（1963 年），最初片長超過4個小時，后來被刪減。當(dāng)時，放映員在準(zhǔn)備下一幕的影片時，觀眾可以中場休息片刻。隨后幾十年，大片的時長有所波動（在一些國家，比如以寶萊塢史詩片著稱的印度，放映時間也很長）。但自 2018 年以來，大片時長不斷增加。

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Franchises are one driver of this trend.?Studios want to squeeze the most out of their costly intellectual property, but they are competing with streaming platforms for eyeballs.?The hope is that a spectacular, drawn-out “event” movie will tempt audiences away from the small screen and into cinemas.?This approach has often paid off: “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), Marvel’s three-hour superhero?extravaganza, was the highest-grossing film in 2019.?Last year long franchise movies made up most of the highest-grossing films in America.

版權(quán)是這一趨勢的驅(qū)動因素之一。電影制片廠希望最大限度地利用自己昂貴的知識產(chǎn)權(quán)，但他們又要與流媒體平臺爭奪觀眾。電影制片廠希望通過一部精彩、冗長的 "劇情 "電影讓觀眾離開小銀幕，吸引他們走進(jìn)電影院。這種方法往往很有成效：漫威出品的3小時超級英雄大戲《復(fù)仇者聯(lián)盟：終局之戰(zhàn)》（2019 年）是 2019 年票房最高的電影。去年，美國票房最高的電影以長篇系列大片為主。

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Anything that lures people off their couches to see a film in theatres is good news for cinemas.?But protracted runtimes also pose a “fundamental problem”, complains Clare Binns, managing director of Picturehouse, a British cinema group and film distributor.?Long movies can mean forgoing two showings per night, which hurts ticket sales and profits.

任何吸引人們離開沙發(fā)去電影院看電影的消息，對電影院來說都是好消息。但英國影院集團(tuán)和電影發(fā)行商 Picturehouse 的總經(jīng)理克萊爾·賓斯抱怨道，冗長的電影也帶來了一個“根本問題”。長時電影可能意味著每晚要放棄2場放映，這會影響票房銷售和利潤。

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Another explanation for longer films has to do with directors’ growing?clout.?Who would dare tell the likes of Mr Nolan to trim his masterpieces??Streamers, which do not have to worry as much about?concision?because viewers can pause whenever they like, may lure big names with deep pockets and promises of creative freedom.?“Killers of the Flower Moon” will debut on AppleTV+ after its theatrical run.?Netflix funded and released Mr Scorsese’s equally long “The Irishman” in 2019, a film that would have benefited from a decisive editor, Irish or otherwise.

電影越來越長的另一個解釋與導(dǎo)演們?nèi)找嬖鲩L的影響力有關(guān)。誰敢讓諾蘭這樣的大導(dǎo)演去刪減他的杰作呢？流媒體平臺不必太擔(dān)心影片的簡潔性，因為觀眾可以隨時暫停，這也可能會吸引財力雄厚并承諾創(chuàng)作自由的大牌導(dǎo)演入駐。《花月殺手》上映后也將在 AppleTV+ 上線。網(wǎng)飛在2019 年投資并發(fā)行了斯科塞斯同時長的電影《愛爾蘭人》，如果有一位果斷的剪輯師（無論是愛爾蘭人還是其他人），這部電影將會獲得更好的效果。