Five-Hour GoF? (WAS Chris Columbus orders scripts for movie 4 and 5)

[cindysphynx]

Lucy wrote:
> 
> Couldn't they do one 5 (or 6!) hour film, and show it with a break 
half way through - like I'm told they used to do?
> 


I think the economics of the movie theatre business might well 
preclude this.  The revenue of an individual theatre depends in part 
on how often they can show a film in one day.  All things being 
equal, a theatre can make 2-3 times as much revenue on 90-
minute "Shrek" as on a 5-hour HP movie.  Also, a 5-hour HP movie will 
draw almost no repeat viewers, I would guess.

So would it be reasonable to expect movie patrons to shell out $16 
U.S. to sit through a 5-hour HP marathon?  I don't think so.  

The other thing that I wonder if Columbus and crew are considering is 
that the market for GoF might be substantially smaller than PS/SS and 
CoS.  The first two books are less dark and appeal to kids.  That 
means the adults go primarily to take their kids.  There are plenty 
of adults who went to the PS/SS movie just because they are fans, but 
based on what I saw at the cineplex, the youth market for the first 
movie was substantial.  Also, people have a natural tendency not to 
want to go see the fourth film in a series if they haven't seen the 
previous films.  So to the extent the HP movie series tries to 
transition from kids to adults, GoF might find that it has lost its 
core audience of kids and is at the mercy of many adults who haven't 
read the books or seen prior movies.

GoF will probably be rated PG-13 (and I assume it will be the first 
of the HP movies to pick up a PG-13 rating), which will also limit 
the potential market for the film.  LotR is instructive.  LotR is PG-
13, it is very well made and probably better than PS/SS, but it is 
taking in a fraction of the box office.  I think GoF will resemble 
LotR in terms of length and scariness and box-office draw, so the GoF 
filmmakers had best be mindful of this in deciding how much GoF movie 
they'd like to serve up.  

As for the adult appeal of a 5-hour GoF, I am quite confident that I 
would not go see any movie of that length, even an HP movie.  I think 
my limit is 3.5 hours, and I can't even think of a movie that I have 
seen that was longer than 3.0 hours (Schindler's List and LotR are at 
my limit).  Geez, I can't even imagine going into a theatre at noon 
and not getting out until 5 p.m. (later if there is an 
intermission).  I'd probably go into insulin shock from eating that 
many M&Ms.

Just my opinion, as always.

Cindy