Kenneth Branagh’s 4 hour version of Hamlet has an intermission.
They kept the intermissiomns in place when they restored and re-released the films Lawrence of Arabia and Spartacus. Prior to that, the last one I recall, like NDP was Gandhi from 25 years ago.
I still like the less-than-a-minute-long intermission in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
And one film that truly needs an intermission is the seven-hour-long Russian version of War and Peace. When they showed it at one of the colleges I attended, they had an intermission long enough for them to literally hold a full Rusiian dinner (which, of course, they did).
I remember intermissions for Places in the Heart (something like that - a Sally Fields movie), and the Gone With The Wind reissue. And of course inbetween double features when there were still drive ins.
Intermissions are dead, but the jingle isn’t - I’m pretty sure it’s still used before the previews begin, or at least it was until recently. And then there’s the Simpsons version already mentioned.
The only movie I’ve seen with an intermission was the re-released Gone with the Wind about 10 years ago. But big-budget movies seem to be getting longer and longer (Lord of the Rings and King Kong are the obvious examples, but I think it’s filtering down and made regular non-epic blockbusters longer, too), I’ve wondered if intermissions might come back.
For me, Intermissions disappeared when they multiplex opened in my town, because now the projectionist didn’t have to change reels. So in my pokey town that would’ve been around 1993 or so.
Sometimes I miss it. Mostly I don’t.
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World had an “active” intermission, where the audio from the film continued to play, giving updates on the police chase.
Although theatres do make a large chunk of change off of concessions, the intermission isn’t usually worth it.
The reason is that you may lose a show if you add that extra time.
Say a movie is 3:20. OK, you have 20 minuts of ‘coming attractions’ and ads. So 3:40. You have to clean the theatre between each show and seat the audience. Let’s say 40 min (and that is conservative) Now your movie is 4:20 between each show time. (noon, 4 (early show with a tight turn) 8:20 and 12:40) Adding another 10 mins would be kind of nuts. Noon, 4:10, 8:30, 12:50 so your staff leaves at 4 am. It’s really better to just have a shot at a fresh crowd with another show time.
Plus, when your last show starts, you keep the concession stand open for about half an hour then you close up for the night. (if your staff is good, everyone can leave following the last customer out the door) But if your 3 hour movie has an intermission 90 to 100 mins into it, then they all have to sit around for it.
And people don’t really go out and buy that much more during an intermission.
Some theatres add their own intermission. Which kind of pisses off the studio since it isn’t something the film makers wanted.
“Ice Station Zebra” had an interesting intermission. I didn’t see it at the theater, catching it on basic cable instead, but they still included an exterior shot of the station that lasted several minutes near the middle of the movie. At first I couldn’t figure out what was going on, why are they showing several minutes of snow blowing around and nothing happening?
It’s annoying when a film has an intermission, but the theater doesn’t show it. I love Bollywood films, and most of them are more than 3 hours. Most of them have a planned intermission, including a title card. But the US theaters just continue on with the film. I have to wait for a weak musical number and use that as an intermission/restroom break.
Hence the meme, “This is where I came in.”
The only intermission I’ve seen in a theatrical release was when I was in Israel over the summer. I found it really annoying. The film we were seeing was only 87 min long and it came right in the middle of a dialogue scene. I was with a large group of Americans and we all thought the film broke until one of our Israeli guides said it was just intermission.