# And now for a brief intermission
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 19, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558 "2000-10-19T17:40:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558/41 "2016-01-25T17:39:58Z")
Hamlet’s (1996) intermission was much needed, but I still boggle at the fact it came like 3.5 hours into a 4 hour movie. My teeth had been floating since before the three hour mark. I knew the intermission was coming, so I toughed it out, but I thought I was gonna burst.
Why couldn’t they have put it around 2.5 hours?
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558/42 "2016-01-25T18:13:52Z")
The intermission for _Hamlet_ comes at 2:38 (i.e., 158 minutes into the film). The film is 3:58 long (i.e., 238 minutes long) without the intermission and 4:18 long (i.e., 258 minutes long) with the intermission. So you’re wrong about the time before the intermission.
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558/43 "2016-01-25T19:13:26Z")
> [@infinitii](#):
>
> I’ve seen several Bollywood/Indian movies in theaters. Most of them have a place for an intermission, and sometimes they will actually do a 10 minute break or so, and sometimes the theater will just ignore it and keep going. It’s probably the theater’s choice.
Sub continental movies are rarely under two hours and usually longer.
As it is, I do know that if a movie ismore than 2 hours long runtime then regulations are that the cinema must have an intermission; whther the movie has one or not. At leasyt thats the case in Islamabad.
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### Author:  [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558/44 "2016-01-25T19:42:13Z")
I heard that 2015’s _Hateful Eight_ had an intermission.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558/45 "2016-01-25T20:04:47Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#):
>
> Now, if that speech was ever included in a movie version of _Atlas Shrugged_, you certainly have my permission to take an intermission - a LONG intermission. You won’t miss anything.
That’s where I gave up on the book. 20 pages into the monologue, I skipped ahead another good chunk, 50 to 100 pages, to see when it ends – nope, still talking.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558/46 "2016-01-25T20:20:49Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#):
>
> I heard that 2015’s _Hateful Eight_ had an intermission.
Not the general theatrical release.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-now-for-a-brief-intermission/37558/47 "2016-02-05T20:21:11Z")
[According to the Guardian, The Playhouse Cinema, Louth, Lincolnshire, has intermissions.](Playhouse Cinema, Louth, Lincolnshire)
> [@](#):
>
> The concession kiosk opts for the traditional. Pop, pick-n-mix, Butterkist and instant coffee is the order of the day. No hot dogs alas, but the Playhouse offers the relative obscurity of Snax – strange potato chips displayed in a glass cabinet.
>
> Best of all, the Playhouse retains a mid-movie intermission complete with ice-creams on sale from a tray-wielding member of staff in the auditorium. If things are really quiet, it’s not unknown for Steven the projectionist to keep the film running, tap you on the shoulder and ask if you want a choc-ice bringing over.
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