Remember back in the day when you went to the cinema or drive-in and saw two films with an intermission in between to grab a drink and another box of jaffas? Well, these days intermissions are a risky business – even though some films are very, very long.
Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon runs for 206 minutes – you read that right, almost 3.5 hours – and cinemas are not legally allowed to have an intermission unless they’ve applied for one from the studio behind the film – in this instance Paramount – and have received permission.
That hasn’t stopped a small number of overseas movie theatres from showing the movie with breaks ranging from six to 15 minutes.
The ABC reports that Palace Cinemas, which runs 24 movie theatres across Australia, approached Paramount to ask if they could insert an intermission into Killers of the Flower Moon but the answer was no.
“They checked with their head office in California, LA, and the response came back that that would not be permitted,” said chief executive Benjamin Zeccola.
“They’ve got this concept of how the director intended the film to be seen.
“And I find that somewhat awkward because, obviously, when these films are shown at home, on streaming on Apple TV, or any other platform, or DVD, there’s a pause button, which people frequently use.
Are you happy to sit through a movie of that length?
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