Many complain about how long some modern films are, but nothing compares to the longest movie ever made, which would require three days in a theater.
Summary
- The Cure for Insomnia, released in 1987, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest movie ever made, running for a mind-boggling 85 hours.
- Unlike traditional movies, this experimental film was designed to cure insomnia and reprogram an insomniac’s biological clock.
- The film features actor L.D. Groban reading a 4,080-page poem interrupted by clips from heavy metal videos and pornography, although the reason for these inclusions is unknown.
Although a common complaint of modern moviegoers and critics alike is the length of movies, that didn't stop one director from producing an 85-hour film. A compact runtime clocking in around 90 minutes used to be the norm, but now directors think nothing of movies approaching 150 minutes or longer if it makes sense for the story they're telling. However, nothing in theaters today comes close to the longest movie ever made, which debuted in 1987.
Unsurprisingly, the film is more of an experiment than an actual movie with a plot, characters and thoughtful direction. However, it is not a documentary and is intended to be viewed in its entirety, qualifying it as the longest running film ever made per Guinness World Records. To watch it start to finish required more than three days in the theater, and it was indeed showed in its entirety upon its debut in 1987.
1987's The Cure for Insomnia Holds The Record For The Longest Movie Ever Made
Debuting on January 31st, 1987, The Cure for Insomnia is an experimental film directed by John Henry Timmis IV. It was originally shown at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and did run continuously from January 31st into February 3rd, as it clocked in at a mind-boggling 85 hours [three days, 13 hours]. Per What to Watch, the average feature film length in 2021 was 131 minutes, making The Cure for Insomnia roughly 39 times longer than a modern excursion to the movie theater.
There is some dispute online as to what the movie's actual length is, with some estimates actually pushing it as high as 87 hours. However, there is no way to verify its length as the movie has been lost to time. The film was never released on home video upon its initial release, and no copies of the film have ever been recovered, leading most film experts to consider the film lost.
Why The Cure For Insomnia Is 85 Hours Long
The Cure for Insomnia is not a "movie" in the traditional sense, in that its intended purpose is not for entertainment. The purpose for the movie is indicated by the title: it was designed to literally be a cure for insomnia, with its content intended to reprogram an insomniac's biological clock. Obviously this is very hard to confirm considering that the film has been lost, but given its reported content, that reasoning certainly makes sense.
The film consists mainly of actor L.D. Groban reading his 4,080-page poem titled A Cure For Insomnia over the course of the runtime. It is periodically interrupted by spliced-in clips from heavy metal videos and pornographic materials, although the explanation for these inclusions also seems to have been lost to time. There are other experimental films that have been made since A Cure for Insomnia's release that might challenge for the title of "Longest Movie Ever Made", but as of now, the folks at Guinness still recognize the avant-garde film's supremacy.
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