Longest time spent in a theater watching films?

[Douglas Meltzer]

The recent thread about the newest version of Abel Gance's Napoleon (just over 7 hours) made me think about time spent in movie theaters. I saw the 1981 restoration at Radio City Music Hall and that had a running time of 4 hours. I believe this Napoleon will be screened in two parts on different days.





As a kid, I went to see a triple feature of old horror films that took 4 hours. I was tempted, but never went to the “Go Ape” screenings of all 5 original Planet of the Apes films. That would have lasted over 8 hours! What’s the longest time you've spent at the cinema? Assuming of course that you weren't the projectionist...

[Steve Klare]

Hmmm...

Does Saturday Night Show in Wildwood count? I've been there a couple of times from 7:30PM to 1:30AM: 6 Hours!

[Graham Ritchie]

Doug

I was going to say 10 years but you got me there by saying "Assuming of course that you weren't the projectionist" The longest time would have been the Sunday nights back in the 1980s, where cinemas would run double features. One I remember we went to was The Fly followed by Aliens so I guess around four hours including intermission.

[Steve Lee]

On the UK release of Star trek generations we decided to hold a Star trek day. Starting at 9.30 in the morning. We showed all of the movies in chronological order ending up with the new release of Star trek generations.
Apart from running the show there wasn't a lot to do all day, so I decided to sit in the theatre and watch them all, I think it ended just after midnight, 15 hours.
Considering the age of some of these films all of the prints were in very good condition, until it came to show the new one.

It turned out that all of the UK prints of this film were second run prints shipped over from the US. With all of them being scratched and worn.
It comes to something when the new release looks worse than the original Motion Picture from fifteen years earlier.

Try explaining this one to the general public.

[Rob Koeling]

For me it was a film by the Hungarian master Bela Tarr. Most of his films are on the long side, but this one was quite extreme...

[Ed Gordon]

Back in the early 1960's the old Embassy theater (1926) was refurbished in an attempt to turn it back into a first run downtown theater. It had turned into a flophouse in the 50's that showed films 24x7 and provided a place for the down and out to sleep overnight. After the remodel they showed a few first run films for awhile and then switched to triple features. The program changed three times a week and they tailored the weekend program to appeal to kids. I was often part of the pack of kids who be in line on Saturday morning to watch movies from 10am until around 3pm.

Sadly it turned into a porno house by the 70's before shutting down in the mid 80's. In 1999 is was bought and remodeled to present live entertainment.

I was never in the Embassy in it’s movie heyday but also was interested in it often as I toured downtown or waited for the bus close to it. In the 60’s they seemed to feature lots of triple play horror B films. Then porno for years in the 70’s. 3RD ave in Seattle is quite sleazy but this place and the symphony hall next door gives it a better and upscale dimension. Surprising this simpler smaller theatre should survive while the elegant theatres in town like the Music Hall, Orpheum and Palomar and old Orpheum are all dust.

theonlydennisnyback on October 27, 2017 at 4:33 pm

There might have been a fire, but it was bomb that went off in 1984 that resulted in seats being roped off. The bomb was put there by a group called The Order. They were a white supremacist group. Their idea was that all the cops would go the Embassy for bomb, while they were robbing a Brinks Truck north of there.

Seattleprojectionist on October 27, 2017 at 4:59 pm

Hi Dennis: I was on my way to work at the Embassy to relieve Doug Stewart in the booth at the time the bomb went off. I had a matinee shift at the King and was scheduled for the evening at the Embassy. I never made it to work that day. Police wouldn’t let me close. Doug said that the Brenkert BX 80 never missed a beat and continued to project XXX product after the explosion. Broke the port glass, however.

Quotes from: https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/16833

Here is promotional video from the new owners of the Embassy, still operating now as The Triple Door.

[Speros Gerou]

For me must have been a double feature back in the 80s.
I can't quite recall now but it was either at the Cinerama or at the Royal Cinerama in Johannesburg.
Gandhi/An Officer and a Gentleman.

[Ed Gordon]

And the award for the most time spent watching movies goes to Richard Allen:

Richard Allen was an intensely private man.

He was an upstanding citizen, the sort of guy who was well-known and well-regarded in his community. He loved working in the metals industry, where he was known as a “go-to person” among his peers. He loved visiting Disneyland almost as much as he loved visiting Hawaii. He loved his wife and four children. He was once a local radio DJ. He helped spur a movement of Bay Area wrestling in the ’80s. He was given a Citizen of the Year award by the Union City Chamber of Commerce. By all accounts, especially that of his daughter Denise, he lived a long, rich life.

But Denise had no idea that her father made national headlines in 1947 for watching a week’s worth of movies in one sitting. She also didn’t expect that this story, more than seven decades later, would become a beloved internet meme that has likely been seen by thousands — if not millions — of people online.

Richard Allen’s wild week started on February 2, 1947.

“Richard had set out last Sunday, intending merely to spend a day at the movies,” read an article published in the San Francisco Examiner on February 8, 1947. “But when he suddenly found it was 1:30 a.m. he was ‘scared to go home.’”

So with a whopping $20 in his pocket, and one unidentified theater with a lax policy on kids watching flicks unsupervised, the possibilities were limitless. The fifth-grader’s wild week was filled with candy bars (150), comic books (15), hot dogs (“a large number”), and movies (16), punctuated by naps at a tree-covered lot.

It didn’t last. He probably had enough money to keep him afloat for a few more weeks, but by the following Friday, Richard’s father Marvin, a San Leandro restaurateur, had retrieved his son. He sternly told the Examiner that his boy gets “adventurous ideas” from listening to the radio.

Full story at: https://sf.gazetteer.co/the-true-sto...-san-francisco

[Evan Samaras]

In June 2023 I had the pleasure of co-hosting a 16mm Horror marathon that lasted 12 hours. I believe their plan this year is to run a 24 hour Marathon!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Pretty amazing answers! I do recall as a kid going to a quadruple feature of monster films at a Drive-In in Florida. We left when the fourth film started, Creatures the World Forgot. I still haven't seen it.

Rob, how was that showing of Sátántangó handled? At over 7 hours, were there a few intermissions or was it shown in two parts?

[Osi Osgood]

I did go to see Star Wars three times in one day, "surviving" on popcorn (fibre, healthy), and and those chocolate covered peanuts,( name scapes me, but peanuts, very healthy), freaking my mom out.

[Rob Koeling]

Pretty amazing answers! I do recall as a kid going to a quadruple feature of monster films at a Drive-In in Florida. We left when the fourth film started, Creatures the World Forgot. I still haven't seen it.

Rob, how was that showing of Sátántangó handled? At over 7 hours, were there a few intermissions or was it shown in two parts?

Doug, I bet you reminded your parents of missing the last film for many years afterwards
Sátántangó was shown in one day with several intermissions. I watched it recently again at home, but spread out over several sessions. I do love his films. I was lucky enough to find a beautiful 16mm print of Damnation recently. That is now one of the most precious film prints in my collection.

[Barry Attwood]

I remember that my brother Michael and myself went to the Odeon Muswell Hill and saw the original 3 "Star Wars" films one after another, that was a great day out!

[David Hardy]

I can remember going to an "All Night Horror Film Show Marathon " at one of our cinemas in the early 70's . It was a great mix of Roger Corman Poe films , Hammer Films and a couple of Universal Monsters . The shows started at around 10:00 pm in the evening and finished around 8:30 am in the morning . I almost fell asleep but never did as i had a slept during the day of the first showing and it was such a rare event i did not want to miss it . The poor projectionists must have been shattered though as there was no long play cake stand systems in those days .

[David M. Leugers]

Two feature films, previews, two cartoons or a Three Stoogies short followed by staying to re-watch the first film. Sometimes we had to leave before the re-watch was complete in order to get home in time for supper. Typical Saturday matinee fun.