'The Brutalist' clocks in at 3 hours and 35 minutes. Here are 22 other movies over 3 hours long.
Eric Charbonneau/A24/Getty Images
- "The Brutalist," starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce, is 3 hours and 35 minutes.
- Over the last few years, blockbusters have become longer and longer.
- Three-hour movies are becoming more common, like "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "Oppenheimer."
Multiple movies in recent years have clocked in at three hours long, from "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "Oppenheimer" to this year's architectural epic, "The Brutalist."
The reaction to these lengthy running times ranges from joy to begging for an intermission, and in the case of "The Brutalist," those prayers were answered: The film has a 15-minute intermission built into its runtime.
A long runtime isn't an unprecedented move. There have been many movies throughout cinematic history that have clocked in at three hours or more, including some of the highest-grossing movies of all time, like "Avengers: Endgame" and "Avatar: The Way of Water."
If you ever have a spare afternoon, here are 23 three-hour-long movies that will eat up a significant chunk of your day.
Paramount
"The Wolf of Wall Street," directed by Martin Scorsese, is based on the true story of Jordan Belfort and his escapades as the leader of a stock brokerage firm that ended up breaking federal laws. The movie was well-received by both critics and audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
"'The Wolf of Wall Street' is a magnificent black comedy: fast, funny, and remarkably filthy," wrote The Atlantic.
Universal Pictures
"Oppenheimer," one-half of the biggest movie phenomenon of last year ("Barbenheiemer"), stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
The film follows Oppenheimer from his time as a university student in the United Kingdom through World War II and the atomic bomb detonations, the security clearance hearing that ended his career in politics, to the end of his life.
The Ringer wrote that the "level of shock and awe" exhibited in "Oppenheimer" is "breathtaking," yet sometimes also "taxing."
Getty Images
Kevin Costner both starred in and directed the 1990 film "Dances with Wolves," which follows a Civil War-era lieutenant in the US Army who is positioned in a remote outpost on the western frontier. He eventually becomes part of a Native American tribe.
His directorial debut was applauded and even earned Costner the best director Academy Award. It also won best picture. Newsweek wrote, "Costner directs with the confidence of a Hollywood veteran well aware that entertainment comes before earnestness."
Marvel Studios
"Avengers: Endgame" didn't have an easy job to do — tie up a full decade of Marvel movies while simultaneously setting the stage for Phase 4. But somehow, it worked. It also managed to rake in nearly $2.8 billion at the box office.
As Business Insider's Kirsten Acuna wrote, "'Endgame' is an emotional punch straight to the gut," and "a very satisfying conclusion to this adventure that started back in 2008 with Tony Stark."
Universal Pictures
"The Deer Hunter" combined the star power of Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and Christopher Walken in a movie about the effects that the Vietnam War had on residents of their small Pennsylvania town.
The Hollywood Reporter called it "the great American film of 1978."
Buena Vista Pictures
Notorious 2001 flop "Pearl Harbor" only garnered a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes — probably for its less-than-stellar performances.
"For all the 118 actors listed, the movie offers almost no sense of authentic humanity," wrote the Associated Press.
Warner Bros.
"The Green Mile," based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, is about a death row inmate who appears to have supernatural healing powers.
The Montreal Film Journal called it "a wonderful picture with a deeply human core."
Paramount
"Babylon" is an epic story of Old Hollywood, following three characters, played by Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, and Brad Pitt, as they make their way in 1920s Los Angeles.
The film was divisive. The London Evening Standard called it a "disaster of biblical proportions," while the Wall Street Journal said it was one of the "richest and most ambitious films" of the year.
20th Century Fox
Real-life lovers Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton teamed up to play historical power couple Cleopatra and Mark Anthony in "Cleopatra."
Rotten Tomatoes said it best: "This colossal and opulent $60 million spectacular was epic in every sense of the word — an epic investment, an epic in the annals of Hollywood gossip, and, ultimately, an epic flop."
Disney/20th Century Studios
Director James Cameron's long-awaited follow-up to 2009's "Avatar" (which itself is 2 hours and 42 minutes long) came 13 years later and is even more of a spectacle than its predecessor.
"The Way of Water" continues the story of Jake Sully and his love, Neytiri, along with their blended family of biological and adopted children, as they once again face the greed of the human race trying to exploit Pandora's natural resources.
Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio called the film an "astounding epic."
Warner Bros.
"The Right Stuff" is based on the true story of Chuck Yeager and his fellow test pilots who were chosen for Project Mercury, the first crewed spaceflight.
"Rarely has a film made a historic accomplishment seem so vivid and personal," wrote The Hollywood Reporter. "It makes you wonder, quite suddenly, why there aren't more movies like this."
20th Century Fox
The tragic love story of Jack and Kate, two passengers on the doomed RMS Titanic, was forever immortalized in this tearjerker.
Vox reviewer Alyssa Wilkinson watched the film for the first time in 2017 and found it to be still effective.
She wrote that it "swept me off my feet almost from the get-go, a grand epic romance-disaster that reminded me, in the middle of my overstuffed-with-movies life, of what we mean when we talk about the power of cinema."
Universal Pictures
Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning drama is about the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German man who defied the Nazis and saved more than 1,000 Jews by employing them at his factory.
"With seemingly effortless grace and skill, 'Schindler's List' balances fear and exaltation, humor and horror, love and death," wrote The Chicago Tribune.
New Line Cinema
The final movie of "The Lord of the Rings" saga concluded with the entire Fellowship of the Ring working together to save Middle Earth from the evil all-seeing eye of Sauron.
Though its running time tired some people out — "Yes, the running time is long, and yes, those many endings in a slow, dreamy coda left me feeling spent — better spent than I can ever remember," wrote The Wall Street Journal — it became the first and only "Lord of the Rings" movie to win the Academy Award for best picture.
Paramount
This follow-up to "The Godfather" combined the origin story of mob boss Don Vito Corleone with the rise of his son, Michael, in the rare sequel that's just as good as, if not better than, the original.
"One of the most ambitious and brilliantly executed American films, a landmark work from one of Hollywood's top cinema eras," wrote The Chicago Tribune.
Warner Bros.
Denzel Washington starred as the titular Malcolm X, one of the most famous and divisive leaders in Black history.
Newsweek wrote, "[Director Spike] Lee and company have performed a powerful service: they have brought Malcolm X very much to life again, both as man and myth."
Warner Bros.
"Barry Lyndon," directed by Stanley Kubrick, follows the titular character, played by Ryan O'Neal, for around 40 years of his life, as he rises from a lower-class gambler to the husband of a lady — and then sinks back to being a gambler.
As Rotten Tomatoes wrote, the film is "cynical, ironic, and suffused with seductive natural lighting."
Apple TV+/Paramount
One of the best movies of last year was "Killers of the Flower Moon," starring frequent Scorsese collaborators like Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, along with new additions like Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons.
The film is based on the real murders of members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, also known as the Reign of Terror, in the 1920s.
"Killers" was called "grand, classic film-making" and "an American tragedy of the highest order" by The New Statesman.
Netflix
"The Irishman" reunited De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and more of some of the most iconic actors of the last 50 years to tell the decadeslong story of Union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino), mob enforcer Frank Sheeran (De Niro), and mob leader Russell Bufalino (Pesci).
Even though it's a hefty 3 1/2 hours, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "there are 209 minutes in 'The Irishman' and not one of them is wasted."
MGM
Charlton Heston, one of the most legendary actors in history, starred as the titular Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince who is sold into slavery and must journey back home to Jerusalem, all the while meeting historical figures like Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ himself.
The Telegraph wrote that "the story of how a man takes on the tyranny of the Romans, with all sorts of horrible consequences to himself and his family, is powerful and gripping."
A24
"The Brutalist," which is directed by Brady Corbet and hits theaters on December 20, is the story of Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) as he moves to the United States in the aftermath of the Holocaust. When he is hired by an enigmatic client (Guy Pearce), his life begins to unravel.
"Similar in tone to such Paul Thomas Anderson films as 'There Will Be Blood' and 'The Master,' Mr. Corbet's often-staggering movie casts an unsentimental look at the price of greatness," wrote The Wall Street Journal.
Columbia Pictures
"Lawrence of Arabia," based on the life of British soldier T.E. Lawrence in WWI-era Middle East, is separated into two parts and even has an intermission.
"'Epic' is an over-used word in cinema, but David Lean's 1962, near-four-hour journey with T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) into the Arabian desert is surely the gold standard for films grand in scale, design and delivery," wrote Time Out on the film's 50th anniversary.
MGM
This nearly four-hour sprawling story is about Scarlett O'Hara, a Civil War-era woman who lives on a Georgia plantation and deals with love, loss, and eventually is determined to start her life anew.
While the film has been criticized for its dubious portrayal of the Civil War and slavery, Time Out wrote, "No one watches 'Gone with the Wind' for historical accuracy. What keeps us coming back is four-hours of epic romance in gorgeous Technicolor."