The Age of the Roadshow Epic
The intermission is most strongly associated with the era of the Hollywood “roadshow” epic, a period from the 1950s through the early 1970s. During this time, studios would release their most ambitious, long-form films (often running three hours or more) as special event theatrical engagements. These releases were treated like live theater: they played in select grand cinemas, featured reserved seating, higher ticket prices, and included elements like an overture, an intermission, and exit music. The intermission became a standard feature for sprawling epics where audience comfort was a real concern.
Famous films that originally included an intermission include:
- Gone with the Wind (1939)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
- The Sound of Music (1965)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Practical, Commercial, and Artistic Functions
The reasons for the intermission were threefold:
- Practical & Technical: For audiences, a break was physically necessary to endure a 3-4 hour film. For projectionists in the celluloid era, an intermission provided a natural and unhurried point to perform the complex task of changing over the massive film reels.
- Commercial: The intermission was a huge financial boon for theaters. It drove audiences out of their seats and directly to the concession stands, which are the primary source of a theater’s profit.
- Artistic: A well-placed intermission is not just a random pause. It functions as a dramatic act break, often ending on a major cliffhanger or turning point in the story. This builds anticipation for the second half and gives the audience time to process the narrative developments, making the film feel even grander in scale.
The Decline and Occasional Return
The intermission fell out of favor with the rise of the multiplex business model, which prioritized shorter runtimes to maximize the number of screenings per day. However, the practice has not vanished entirely. It is still a standard feature in many international film industries, particularly Indian cinema. In Hollywood, it has made a niche comeback for special roadshow presentations of exceptionally long films, such as Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight (2015), or for event screenings of classic epics, allowing modern audiences to experience the films as they were originally intended.