Shocked by the news of the length of the Snyder cut. The more I think about it, the more the HBO Max release makes sense.

Yes, filmmakers sometimes go a little overboard with their work, no matter how studio execs and producers intervene (and in some cases, interfere). This is especially true for Zack Snyder, director of "Zack Snyder's Justice League," which opens next week on HBO Max.

The theatrical version of "Justice League" was two hours long. It is far from the shortest film, but it is not particularly long either. The "Snyder cut," as it is called, is twice the size and a few minutes longer than four hours. This makes it one of the longest Hollywood films ever made, surpassing such films as "Gone with the Wind," "Lawrence of Arabia," and "Ben-Hur" (1959). All of these are considered recent "blockbusters" exceeding three and a half hours.

Thankfully, the film will not be released theatrically, but on on-demand streaming platforms. Frankly, for a filmmaker like Snyder, streaming is the best way to go. So even if you like watching movies in actual theaters, this will not be a good fit.

Zack Snyder is not known for making short films. He even has a tradition of extending the running time of his films when they finally get a home release. The "Ultimate Edition" of [Batman vs Superman] added another 31 minutes of footage, giving the film extra context and new subplots. Similarly, the "Director's Cut" of "Watchmen" added 24 minutes of footage to the 162 minutes of the theatrical release, while the "Ultimate Cut" added 53 minutes to the total.

"Dawn of the Dead" (2004) and "Sucker Punch" also have extended cuts, but in these cases the changes were more about MPAA ratings than length.

In the case of "Watchmen" and "Batman vs. Superman," the extended editions received more favorable reviews; Collider noted that the Ultimate Edition of "Batman vs. Superman" solved many of the film's minor problems, but not all He pointed out that "it is much easier to forgive a few things than a dozen," he concluded. Meanwhile, Den of Geek described the Ultimate Cut of Watchmen as "a huge, ambitious film, a classic by any standard."

In other words, the cut, while making the running time more tolerable for theatergoers, resulted in a film that just wasn't that good.

When on-demand streaming is involved, a 3-4 hour film is not such a feat of endurance.

Four hours may not seem like a lot, but it is a big chunk of your day. If you have kids or a job (and probably more than one job), you may not be able to spend four hours on a single movie. Remember when we used to go to the cinema, and a four-hour Snyder cut would have actually taken up even more of your day, since there would most likely be ads and trailers before the movie started.

It also takes a toll on your bladder. Movie theater beverages are often large and caffeinated. Both are the perfect combination for needing to go to the bathroom in the middle of a regular 90-minute movie, let alone a four-hour epic. Even if you skip the more expensive drinks and avoid drinking for an hour or two before the movie starts, there is still a good chance that you will need to go to the bathroom during the movie.

Needless to say, the profits of theaters and box-office companies depend on getting as many people in their seats as possible. A single movie that is the length of two regular movies will eat into their profit margins.

Streaming has no such problem because of the large pause button.

You only have an hour to watch. I only have one hour to watch now and the rest at another time. I need to go to the bathroom for a minute. No problem. If the kids suddenly decide to flood the kitchen or something else happens that needs immediate attention, they can interrupt what they are doing without losing progress.

While movie theater box office revenues depend on maximizing the number of movies shown per day, streaming services have no such problem. First, there is no physical limit to how many people can watch a movie at any given time. Additionally, streaming revenues come from subscriptions, not individual sales; the fact that watching a four-hour movie might cut into time to watch something else is irrelevant.

And for filmmakers like Snyder, who seem to love long films, it's all a blessing. Snyder is highly critical of Warner Bros. executives' interference in the production of Justice League. One of the studio's demands was that the film be kept under two hours, which Snyder recently revealed he thought was a joke at first.

The studio's reasons are not entirely clear, but it is speculated that it was in response to criticism of the initial 2.5-hour running time of "Batman vs Superman."

The fact that people are streaming longer movies rather than seeing them in theaters does not eliminate complaints that they are too long. The last 20 minutes of Avengers: Endgame are boring, even on Disney+. It is also inexcusable that Batman and Superman stopped fighting 45 minutes before the end of the movie.

But the obvious problems with making a very long movie, at least in streaming, are less important. Thus, in situations similar to Snyder's, directors are less likely to worry their heads about screening times. Because screening time is pretty much meaningless.

Certainly, some films are unnecessarily long and suffer as a result. But not all are. Lawrence of Arabia is three hours and 48 minutes long, and The Godfather Part 2 is three hours and 20 minutes. Few people have anything bad to say about the content of these films, and these days, with the proliferation of home media, far fewer people care about length.

These days, Quentin Tarantino rarely makes a film under two and a half hours. One could argue that if "Kill Bill" had been made in 2021 and debuted on streaming, it would have been released as a continuous four-hour film, as the director originally intended. Tarantino, who has spoken out about his distaste for streaming distribution, cannot be persuaded to release the film that way.

As streaming services continue to enhance the production of feature-length content, there is more room for directors who produce films without the cinema in mind. They don't have to worry about maximizing box office revenue or worrying about the audience going to the bathroom at the end of the film. With the right budget and script, there is no need to set limits on the length of a film.

Even director Zack Snyder is trying to get in on this with "Army of the Dead," which will be released on Netflix this May 21. At 2 hours and 29 minutes, the film is one of his shorter films, but still not "short" by any means. But since it is streaming, it doesn't really matter. As long as the film is good.