This is an interesting question to me, but maybe not for the reason you asked @Narnian78.

One of the reasons I was so excited back when Netflix was announced, was because that meant that any film they produced did not have to be locked into a certain time. It could be however long it needed to be. However, because it's just been announced that Narnia will be shown for a couple weeks on IMAX theaters, that means that it will indeed to be one of those set time lengths. I hadn't realized that until you posted this, and for me, that's a bit disappointing. 

But as for your question itself, Walden's LWW is 143min on my DVD and PC is 149min. I think that length is appropriate for how long a Narnia movie ought to be, at least if you're making it for children (which, I guess I don't know if that's the audience Gerwig is making her productions for, but it ought to be).

To be honest, I don't think the Narnia books need to be miniseries. Most of the stories are pretty simple. I'd say two and a half hours is fine. I admit though I wish some of them could be three hours but that's probably not reasonable. I don't think modern audiences would want to see a three-hour movie unless it was part of a really popular series. Of course, Netflix's Narnia could become a really popular series. We'll see.

I think as a general rule of thumb for any movie, you don't really want to be going in for more than 2 hr 40, or less than 90 mins.

Yes there are exceptions to this rule, but only in rare circumstances is it ever justified.

Side note - the one run-time that is a huge red flag for me is 1 hour 59 mins, as it's often a sign of a studio imposed mandate to get the edit under two hours - usually because they have no faith in the film and just need to maximise the number of daily viewings they can cram into theatres 

@col-klink 

I actually like the idea of a miniseries, but I would like the episodes to be at least an hour long.  If you remember Masterpiece Theatre the PBS British novels were in at least an hour long installments. That gives people enough time to experience the adaptations in depth.  When the BBC Narnia was first broadcast here in the U. S, the entire book was shown in one night.  I didn’t mind it at all since you got to see the whole adaptation at once, and it used to be easier to videotape it that way on VHS.  The DVD’s were better, but by that time I had seen the programs several times. There are some advantages to having the entire program broadcast in one night without having to wait until the next week. I also kind of enjoy sitting in an old theater watching a two hour movie as a nostalgic experience. 🙂

@narnian78 

American viewers were confused by the screening of the BBC TV series as a single film. None of the BBC versions were made as movies; they are each serials, with six half-hour episodes. This is clearly shown in some of the cliff-hanger endings; "be watching next week to see what happens". 

BBC had a long history of producing high quality serial adaptations of 20th century children's books. The time limit on most episodes was 30 minutes. 

Films/movies aimed at child audiences tend to be 90 minutes, and anything over two hours is too much for most children's attention spans. Walden's adaptations were a bit long, but they had unnecessary material packed in. 

@coracle 

If you go to a theater an hour doesn’t seem long enough to get your money’s worth. That is why most movies are at least two hours long. This includes the Walden films, which had to be over two hours long to sell tickets. Otherwise people might think it’s not worth the money.

I think the length really depends on the child's attention span. Depending on age or their maturity level, a child may or may not be able to sit through a 2 hour and a half movie.

I don't have any specific lengths for the Narnia films, but it should be interesting. I even wonder if LB would end up having the longest runtime like Return of the King did in the LOTR film trilogy did.

I think it will also depend on what they will decide to add, expand on, or even cut out. There might be some things that could be expanded on that could work well. There might be some things in the books that may have to be left out in the movies (either because it wouldn't work well or for time sake).

So I guess we'll wait and see.

Posted by: @narnian78

I don’t particularly like having the story in half hour installments as in the original BBC series was broadcast. This is too little of the story at one time. I thought it was better to view each complete story in one sitting as the BBC series was broadcast here in America so many years ago.

As @coracle has already pointed out, they were actually designed to be viewed in half-hour instalments — which is why the cliffhanger moments come exactly where they do — and that's how they were shown on TV in Australia when I first watched them as a 7-year-old. We did also get them on video, either taping them off the TV or buying the commercial release — I know we bought LWW on video and it had the episode breaks removed to make one 3-hour-long movie. Of course we could pause the tape when watching it at home (as you can do with modern forms of recording too), but sitting through something of that length in a cinema would be an ordeal for most young kids. The original half-hour format was just about right for youthful attention spans!

(And also, I missed having the episode breaks included, which of course we did have in the ones we taped ourselves from the TV broadcasts. Along with emphasising those cliffhangers, it meant we got to hear that theme music by Geoffrey Burgon again (twice over each time!), and to me that's still THE Narnia theme. )

Obviously, though, as others have said, since the new Narnia film is going to be released in IMAX cinemas, it will have to fit within a certain length of time. I agree with @icarus — somewhere in between 1 hour 30 minutes and 2 hours 40 minutes is about right. The books are relatively simple and probably don't need more than 3 hours to tell the entire story well, but I wouldn't want them to be shortened too much either. 

Thanks for the reminder of how I watched the BBC series when I was a kid, @courtenay, although I was 5 years old when I first saw LWW and for years loved rewatching what I had taped on the video player.  The first time I watched it at school though it didn't have the half hour breaks - as it was a commercial release as well.  I eventually got a commercial release video cassette of SC - as I had somehow not recorded the second episode so whenever I watched it, it went from episode 1 to episode 3.  When I got the SC on video cassette of course that one played straight through too.  Interestingly however, I bought the DVD boxset in around 2008 or 2009 - and this commercial release did have each of the productions divided into the half hour episodes.  Now my kids love watching it - and it helps my youngest (she's 7) to go to sleep at nights.

For me also the Geoffrey Burgon Narnia theme, is THE Narnia theme.  Aaahhh...

Now, about the upcoming production, I'm of the opinion, that 1 & half hours is probably too short to tell the story reasonably, but it could reasonably be done somewhere between 2 and 2 & half hours.  As I've mentioned, in one of the other threads - there are a couple of things I would like to see drawn out a bit more (when they make LWW) which I feel were rushed in the Walden movies; namely the Beavers and the kids escape - including sleeping in the hideout, and the death and resurrection of Aslan.  I really liked those two scenes in the BBC production.  

@pete 

I love Geoffrey Burgon’s music too. I kind of wish the original soundtrack music from the broadcast programs was available.   There is a very nice collection of music of Geoffrey Burgon’s music from Narnia and other programs, but it is not the complete music from the actual television broadcasts. It is worth getting and I think it is still available on CD. 

@courtenay

Of course the original broadcasts of the BBC series can still be viewed in succession and even of the entire books.  That is the way I prefer to watch them on DVD.  It is true that they were made in segments designed to fit in a half hour TV slot.  People could easily have missed episodes if they aired only once a week.  I think the Dickens series were made in the same way, and when they were imported here to the U.S. some of them were converted to the one hour format.  The Narnia programs were edited to be shown as one book for each broadcast.   I don’t think it was a bad thing, and in fact I preferred viewing them in one time slot for each adventure.  As an adult one might prefer watching the story all in one sitting, although some children may want to see it in shorter installments. It all depends on the person.