The Daily Feather — A 15-Minute Intermission in The Brutalist & a 15-Plus-Week Intermission for Jobless Americans

Among this year’s 10 Best Picture Oscar nominees, by far the longest is The Brutalist. At 3 hours and 35 minutes, it even features a 15-minute intermission, an anachronism to today’s audiences. During a recent venture to the Alamo Drafthouse, some Googling during the film’s mid-way break informed that intermissions were once commonplace. After World War II, as television threatened to glue audiences to their couches, studios used the “roadshow” format to turn movie-going into a spectacle. Select films (think historical epics, war stories, and musicals) would be given a “roadshow” release limited to select theaters in major cities. Tickets to these exclusive screenings were pricier but sold with reserved seats. The experience often included introductory music, the “overture,” and an intermission between acts. Classics like Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, and 2001: A Space Odysseywere all “roadshowed” before their wide release. This approach fell out of favor in the 1970s as multiplexes packed more screenings into each day and films marketed as “blockbusters” were shown in as many theaters as possible. As such, intermissions in films have all but disappeared.

For unemployed Americans, the length of their intermission between gigs is getting longer. The fourth quarter of 2024 saw the share of Americans unemployed for 15-26 weeks increase to 17.43%, the highest since 2020’s third quarter (blue line).