15 Longest American Movies of All Time

American movies might not be known for their lengthy runtimes the same way Bollywood films are, but since the birth of Hollywood, plenty of filmmakers have tried their hand at making epics. Anything over 2.5 hours can seem daunting to some, and then once you start wading into 3+ hour-long territory, attention spans and bladders alike can become remarkably challenged.

However, some movies need a good deal of time to successfully tell their stories, and a good many long films do ultimately earn their epic runtimes. The following titles are among the longest-ever produced wholly or partly by American studios, excluding documentaries and certain experimental films that often push runtimes to incomprehensibly large sizes. These predominantly mainstream releases are ranked below, beginning with the long and ending with the longest.

15 ‘Giant’ (1956)

Runtime: 201 minutes

It’s not hard to make a joke about Giant having a long runtime, what with that being the title and all. Giant is undoubtedly an epic with numerous characters spread over multiple generations, allowing the core story to span many years, but it thankfully all works surprisingly well. It’s a film that takes nearly three-and-a-half hours to get through, sure, but there’s more than enough contained within to keep it absorbing throughout.

It’s a drama about family with a distinctly Western setting, and adds some romance and melodramatic elements in there for good measure. Giant is also noteworthy for being one of just three movies James Dean ever starred in, and though he’s not front-and-center here the way he is in Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden, Giant might well be the film of his that gives him the most complex and interesting character to play of the three.

14 ‘Malcolm X’ (1992)

Runtime: 202 minutes

Spike Lee was still a fairly young and new-on-the-scene filmmaker when he directed Malcolm X, and it’s a movie to this day that still might well stand as his most ambitious effort. It’s an intense and passionate biopic about the titular figure, looking at the influence he had as an activist and the struggles he faced, from his rise to power and popularity in the 1950s to his assassination in 1965.

Malcolm X is a lot to take in, as it covers a great deal of time and is forceful and quite in-your-face at times, as Lee’s films tend to be (usually in good ways, of course). It’s a powerful historical drama and a great biographical film, and also stands out for how amazing Denzel Washington is in the lead role; arguably one of his best performances in a career filled with great ones.

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13 ‘The Godfather: Part II’ (1974)

Runtime: 202 minutes

Adding almost half an hour to the already lengthy runtime of the first The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II justifies going well over three hours because of how much ground it aims to cover in that time. Much of the story focuses on Michael Corleone’s downfall as the new head of the Corleone family, while various flashbacks show how his father, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando in the first film and Robert De Niro as the younger version of the character in this film) built said empire.

It’s been well-documented by now that The Godfather: Part II is an amazing achievement as far as sequels go, and one of the very best movies that Francis Ford Coppola has ever directed. It’s another essential piece of the overall The Godfather saga, with the story ultimately being concluded by a slightly shorter (and – while maybe over-hated – not quite as good) third film in 1990.

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12 ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (2023)

Runtime: 206 minutes

While many (though perhaps not all) would agree that Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the best films of the 2020s so far, everyone would have to be in agreement that it’s up there with the decade’s longest. Martin Scorsese has directed some slightly longer movies before, but this well-acted, epic, and downbeat historical drama/Western/crime movie does prove to be a monumental watch, and a frequently distressing and bleak one, too.

Killers of the Flower Moon aims to showcase a more subtle and insidious kind of evil than many other characters from past Scorsese films may have practiced, showing the prolonged and gradual killing of a group of people done greedily in the pursuit of power and material possessions. The length emphasizes how long it was able to go on for, and how agonizing the process of finding even a limited amount of justice ended up being.

11 ‘Exodus’ (1960)

Runtime: 208 minutes

Look, most of the time, when a movie finds itself allowed to run for three or more hours, it justifies such a runtime. Unfortunately, when it comes to the lengthy historical drama/war movie that is Exodus, a reason for the immense length isn’t found. As such, despite the premise sounding interesting, the cast being strong (it includes Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint), and there being clear money behind its production, it ends up more than a little dull to watch.

Exodus is about the creation of Israel following the conclusion of World War II, centering on various conflicts that came about as a result of this event (conflicts that stretched on for decades, too). Some may dislike it for the sides it chooses to take or not take in depicting this conflict, but others will simply check out because Exodus is very long and kind of dull, even if it’s not abysmally made from a technical perspective and some of the actors are doing their best with what they were given.

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10 ‘The Irishman’ (2019)

Runtime: 209 minutes

Martin Scorsese is no stranger to making films with long runtimes, and neither is he a stranger to making films that are flat-out amazing. In the case of The Irishman, it’s both one of his longest and most ambitious movies to date, centering on an aging hitman who looks back on the life he’s led with remorse, particularly when it comes to his involvement in the infamous disappearance of union leader Jimmy Hoffa.

Using some admittedly inconsistent de-aging effects, The Irishman spans decades while allowing various actors to portray their characters at different stages of their lives. It’s an epic film that’s also a good deal more somber than many of the gangster movies Scorsese made earlier in his career, clocking in at just shy of 3.5 hours and telling an appropriately large-scale and devastating story in that time.

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9 ‘Ben-Hur’ (1959)

Runtime: 212 minutes

Hollywood went all out with making epics in the 1950s, and into the 1960s, too (though one of the all-time greats of the genre, Lawrence of Arabia, was a UK production), likely in response to television’s popularity making the act of going to the cinema less attractive. Few Hollywood epics can claim to be as large-scale and bombastically cinematic as Ben-Hur, which is one of the largest productions of its time as well as one of the most notably long.

Spanning just over three-and-a-half hours, Ben-Hur is a gripping revenge-themed adventure/drama movie about a man sold into slavery, and the lengths he goes to while seeking revenge against the man who wronged him and his family. The spectacle of Ben-Hur is grand enough to ensure that the film’s still one that can shock and awe an audience in all the best ways, being one epic that’s aged surprisingly well.

8 ‘Heaven’s Gate’ (1980)

Runtime: 217 minutes

Standing as one of the longest Westerns of all time, Heaven’s Gate is a film that (arguably undeservedly) lives in infamy. It was director Michael Cimino’s follow-up to the immensely successful Vietnam War movie The Deer Hunter, which was also a lengthy and challenging movie, though perhaps Heaven’s Gate pushed things too far for some. The amount of negative press surrounding Heaven’s Gate likely didn’t help, either.

Heaven’s Gate aims to do a lot, even considering the amount of time it runs for. It’s broadly about a large-scale conflict between immigrants and wealth-hoarding cattle farmers, featuring a large cast of characters, many of whom have their own subplots and various other things going on. It can feel unwieldy, but the wild ambition of it all is admirable, and there are enough striking/memorable moments to make it worth watching at least once.

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7 ‘The Ten Commandments’ (1956)

Runtime: 220 minutes

The Ten Commandments takes one of the best-known stories from the Bible and transforms it into a true epic, with this 1956 version also being noteworthy for marking the second time director Cecil B. DeMille made a film of this name (the first was in 1923). Broadly speaking, The Ten Commandments is an iconic religious movie that tells the story of Moses, following how he was raised by a royal family from infancy and eventually fulfilled his destiny as the leader of the Hebrew people.

Biblical stories aren’t shy about getting rather huge in scope (especially something like Noah’s Ark), so it feels fitting that The Ten Commandments is a grand production with a runtime that comes close to four hours. Its impressive size and attention to detail make it a film that’s easy to admire and get swept up in, regardless of how religious the viewer personally is.

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6 ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (1984)

Runtime: 229 minutes

With Once Upon a Time in America, there’s an argument to be made that Sergio Leone saved his best – or at least most ambitious – film for last. It ended up being the legendary Italian filmmaker’s swansong; a crime epic about childhood friends who become successful gangsters in adulthood, during the Prohibition era, only for ceaseless greed and cruelty to be their collective undoing as they grow older.

With its considerable runtime and numerous sequences that are uncompromisingly violent, it’s not the easiest movie to sit through, but it will impress those who feel up to watching it. Once Upon a Time in America contains one of Robert De Niro’s best and most complex performances, and is beautifully shot from start to finish, with such visuals only looking/feeling even more impressive when contrasted with Ennio Morricone’s remarkable and haunting score.

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5 ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939)

Runtime: 233 minutes

A film that to this day remains historically significant and controversial, seemingly in equal measure, Gone with the Wind was arguably the biggest movie of its time, and an Oscar-winning epic that likely influenced all epics that followed in its wake. It combines melodrama, romance, and war genres into a single narrative that takes place during and after the American Civil War, predominantly focused on an explosive and tumultuous relationship.

By modern standards, Gone with the Wind can feel a bit all over the place, and its approach to exploring issues around race definitely makes the film feel like a product of its time. Yet it remains a movie that won acclaim and proved hugely successful at the box office, with it also standing to this day as one of the longest mainstream American movies ever made.

4 ‘Hamlet’ (1996)

Runtime: 242 minutes

Most film adaptations of Hamlet trim the lengthy William Shakespeare play down somewhat, though the 1996 adaptation directed by Kenneth Branagh does no such thing, instead bravely telling the play’s entire story within the medium of film. Branagh also plays the titular character, and is one part of an immense cast that includes the likes of Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi, Kate Winslet, Judi Dench, Jack Lemmon, and even Robin Williams.

This take on Hamlet clocks in at just over four hours, standing as the most complete movie version of this epic and tragic tale about murder, betrayal, and revenge. It can feel like an exhausting watch at times, but given it’s the film adaptation of Hamlet that’s most true to the original text, it has immense merit and is worth checking out for anyone who likes film adaptations of Shakespeare’s works.

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3 ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ (2021)

Runtime: 242 minutes

Even the most die-hard superhero fans might want to steer clear of 2017’s Justice League, which tried to do too much in too little time. 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League, on the other hand, is a compelling and better-paced film with roughly the same premise, being the first (and now only) big team-up movie of the short-lived DCEU, which began in 2013 with Man of Steel and ended in 2023 with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

At least Zack Snyder’s Justice League exists, in all its wild ambition and thrilling messiness, in hindsight feeling like a better finale for this cinematic universe (so long as one ignores all the epilogue-type scenes that set up movies that’ll likely never happen). With an ambitious scale, lengthy runtime, and unique music choices, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is exhausting and impressive in equal measure, and stands as a truly epic superhero movie.

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2 ‘Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair’ (2006)

Runtime: 247 minutes

Frustratingly, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is an alternate version of Quentin Tarantino’s two-part Kill Bill saga that’s only been screened a handful of times, and is currently impossible to obtain officially. As the title suggests, it takes both volumes and merges them into one movie, purportedly being more than just Vol. 1 followed by Vol. 2, with certain changes made to make it feel more coherent as a singular film.

As such, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair does officially exist, and has been screened occasionally before, but being able to watch it nowadays, or in the foreseeable future, feels like a pipe dream. Perhaps it wouldn’t change a great deal, and both the action-packed first volume and the more contemplative second volume can still be enjoyed by Tarantino’s fans, but it’s hard not to wish that this extended, one-volume version will one day see some sort of wider release.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 can be streamed on Roku in the U.S.

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1 ‘Gettysburg’ (1993)

Runtime: 254 minutes

Gettysburg is an absolutely huge war film, and a remarkable achievement as far as epic movies go. It’s a movie that clocks in at well over four hours, depicting the historically significant Battle of Gettysburg on both an immensely huge scale and with a keen attention to detail, helping to demonstrate why it was one of the most important events of the American Civil War.

Viewers may be intimidated by such a runtime, and indeed, if they track down the director’s cut, they’ll be greeted with something that runs for a little over 4.5 hours. Gettysburg is a film that might well appeal more to history buffs than casual movie fans, as a result, though it’s hard to deny that as far as historical war movies go, they don’t get much bigger (or longer) than this.

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NEXT: The Longest Movies of All Time, Ranked