When Martin Scorsese’s “Killers Of The Flower Moon” was released a couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of griping from people upset it is over three hours long. I’m not one of them, since I enjoyed the entire thing and never felt it dragged (my full review is here).
Regardless, I don’t buy the runtime excuse because:
- Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead were legendary for playing concerts that lasted more than three hours — and always sold out.
- Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows do the same.
- NFL fans have long attended games that take that long (not to mention a couple of hours of tailgating beforehand).
- I know several St. Louisans who proudly say they make the ten-hour drive to vacation in Destin, Florida, with only one stop.
For the record, the second “Avatar” movie, which is near the top of the all-time box office list, ran 3+ hours. So did similarly huge moneymakers “Titanic” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
Maybe the whiners are just too lazy to go to a theater, preferring to wait to watch “Killers Of The Flower Moon” on Netflix from their couches — where they’re used to spending much more than three hours binge-watching entire seasons of “Suits” in a weekend.