List of longest films
This is a list of the some of the longest movies ever released. The longest film ever made is Film Stock (Buracz Bosnitz) at 54480 minutes long.
Major releases
Note: Some releases are extended cuts or director's cuts, and are ranked accordingly to the longest verified running time.
Aside from the cast of The Lord of the Rings, Robert De Niro stars in the greatest number of movies, three: 1900, Once Upon a Time in America, and The Godfather, Part II. Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra, Giant), Martin Sheen (Gettysburg, Apocalypse Now), Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves, JFK) and Charleton Heston (The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur) each star in two. Heston also appears in Hamlet. Peter O'Toole starred in Lawrence of Arabia and appeared in Caligula and The Last Emperor. Robert Duvall had major roles, though not leading roles, in three: The Godfather, Part II, Gods and Generals, and Apocalypse Now. Joe Pesci, James Woods, Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Dennis Hopper all appear in at least two.
Oliver Stone directed two films: JFK and Nixon; Bernardo Bertolucci directed 1900 and The Last Emperor; David Lean direct Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.
The 1927 movie Metropolis is believed to have been 210 minutes long or more in the original release, but it was considered too long, so it was cut to a little over one-third of this length. It is hard to determine, since much of the footage was lost a long time ago.
The original version of Erich von Stroheim's Greed reportedly ran at over 8 hours. However, it was only ever shown once at this length, and no such copy currently exists. The length of the final release (edited against von Stroheim's wishes) was approximately 2 hours. Subsequently rediscovered footage has let researchers reconstruct something closer to four hours.
Movie serials
This is a list of serial films that were made as one continuous film, or series that have been released as a continuous film, combining their running times.
| Title | Running Time | Country | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple (Huo shao hong lian si; 火燒紅蓮寺) |
2220 min. (or 1620 min.?) |
China | 1928–1931 (serial) |
| The Star Wars Sextet (Using the running times of the original releases) | 794 min. | USA | 1977-2005 |
| The Lord of the Rings trilogy | 680 min. | USA/New Zealand | 2001, 2002, 2003 |
| The Godfather Saga | 583 min. | USA | 1972, 1974, 1990 |
| Les Vampires | 399 min. | France | 1915 |
| Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part II, Back to the Future Part III | 337 min. | USA | 1985, 1989, 1990 |
| The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions | 267 min. | USA | 2003 |
| Kill Bill | 247 min. | USA | 2003, 2004 |
Non-major releases
| Title | Running Time | Country | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Film Stock (Buracz Bosnitz) | 54480 min. | Czechoslovakia | 1960s |
| The Cure for Insomnia (video) | 5220 min. | USA | 1987 |
| The Longest Most Meaningless Movie in the World | 2880 min. | UK | 1970 |
| Shoah | 566 min. | USA | 1985 |
| Empire (Andy Warhol) | 480 min. | USA | 1964 |
| Satan's Tango (Béla Tarr) (Sátántangó) |
450 min. | Hungary | 1994 |
| Sleep | 321 min. | USA | 1963 |