Cinema Chief Pleads With Directors To Make Shorter Movies: “You’re Making The Film For An Audience”

Clare Binns, creative director of Cineworld-owned boutique theater chain Picturehouse Cinemas, has claimed that film runtimes are proving to be a problem for audiences and cinemas.

Speaking after BAFTA announced that she would receive an Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema award, Binns used the platform to appeal to directors to make shorter movies.

The Picturehouse boss said she speaks to producers about the trend, which led to Oscar-winner The Brutalist inserting an interval into its 215-minute runtime.

“I talk to producers about this and say: ‘Tell the director you’re making the film for an audience, not the directors,’” she told The Guardian. “There’s always exceptions, but I look at a lot of films and think: ‘You could take 20 minutes out of that.’ There’s no need for films to be that long.”

Binns said longer films mean that theaters “only get one evening show,” which could hurt the revenue of some chains. “I think it’s a wake-up call to directors. If they want their films in cinemas, people have to feel comfortable about what they’re committing to.”

Binns began her career as a cinema usher in the early 1980s. Working her way up to projectionist and then manager at the Ritzy cinema in London, she went on to operate a network of UK cinemas under Zoo Cinemas before joining Picturehouse in 2003.

She told The Guardian that cinemas are “in a much better place” after the pandemic, and voiced confidence in the medium amid Netflix’s “unsettling” takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. “People have predicted the end of cinema many times – when television arrived, when we went digital. We’re still standing,” she said.

Binns will receive her BAFTA at the Film Awards on February 22. The ceremony will be hosted by Alan Cumming. BAFTA longlists were published last week, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another leading the pack with a record 16 mentions.