A Vanity
Fair article from last year compared the top twenty US box office
performers of 2022 to those of 2002. He found that, on average, the 2022
films were 13 minutes longer than the 2002 films. Maybe those years seem
arbitrarily chosen, and the twenty movie sample size is a little small
for your taste, but to me the statistic was a nice illustration of how
popular movies may have changed in a twenty-year period. To the writer,
however, it meant that “moviegoers had to sit through” an additional 13
minutes of screentime, as though we have no say in the movie theater
tickets we buy.
On the contrary, the top box office performers are the films people
specifically chose to watch over all others. Who knows how long the
non-highest grossing films were? They very well might have been shorter!
As Table 2 shows us below, the next twenty greatest box office
performers (21-40) are i) shorter in runtime than the first twenty, and
ii) see a decrease in average runtime from 2002 to 2022. If anything,
the more valid takeaway is that filmmakers had to produce an additional
13 minutes of footage to keep audiences interested than the other way
around.
Table 1: Movie Runtimes of the 20 Highest Grossers of 2002 vs 2022
|
|
Before (2002)
|
After (2022)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
20
|
20
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
81
|
87
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
116.0
|
129.6
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
110.5
|
125.5
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
179
|
192
|
Table 2: Movie Runtimes of the 21st-40th Highest Grossers of 2002 vs
2022
|
|
Before (2002)
|
After (2022)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
20
|
20
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
83
|
100
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
114.3
|
113.4
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
116
|
109
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
167
|
139
|
This passive framing of moviegoers (of us) that accompanies the
“movies are getting longer” discourse is what urks me. Even industry
insiders are guilty of it, as producer David T. Friendly (Little Miss
Sunshine) voiced his frustrations online over the
length of recent Oscar-nominated movies and called for filmmakers to
trim their movies. He obviously knows the industry more than I do, but
why point to the filmmakers while not asking anything of the Academy
members (himself included) who nominated long films over shorter ones
(e.g. Fallen
Leaves, All of Us
Strangers, Bottoms, etc.)? Asking
for longer movies to be shortened when we are not even watching or
rewarding the shorter ones feels hypocritical, to say the least.
Since I take issue with others’ interpretations on movie runtime data
and I have 26K rows of scraped IMDb data sitting in my laptop, why not
explore the topic myself.
Questions of Interest
The question “are movies getting longer?” could use
some refining. The more precise question I’ll be answering is:
do mainstream movies now have a greater runtime than
before?
Confession: I don’t care about movie runtime in itself. To me, an
increase in runtime would merely be a symptom of a deeper, more
conscious change in Hollywood. One such change I wish to explore is the
decline
of mid-budget movies, and mid-budget comedies in particular. Another
recent trend is all the superheroes and I.P.-based Action movies that
have dominated theater screens since the advent of the MCU. If the
Comedies are shorter in runtime than the Action movies - which they are
- then a drop in Comedy and rise in Action among mainstream movies would
naturally result in an increase in runtime. So, are Action
movies now more present among mainstream movies than before? Are
Comedies now less present among mainstream movies than before? Also,
have Action and Comedy movies gotten longer? Whatever changes
are found, they must not have come from a vacuum. Box office successes
(and failures) of the past are likely to have informed recent movie
studio decision-making, leading me to also ask: Before, were
Action movies more present among mainstream movies than Comedy movies?
Were Action movies longer than Comedy movies?
Finally, since the blockbuster and mid-budget films are mentioned to
have evolved differently from each other, the analysis is conducted on
the two groups separately. The final list of questions asked is thus:
1. Are movies getting longer
- Are blockbusters getting longer? Skip to Result.
- Are mid-budget movies getting longer? Skip to Result.
- Are Action movies getting longer? Skip to Result.
- Are non-Action Comedy movies getting longer? Skip to
Result.
2. Are longer movie types becoming more common than before, and
shorter movie types less common
- Are Action movies more present among Blockbusters now than before?
Skip to Result.
- are non-Action Comedies less present among Blockbusters now than
before? Skip to Result.
- Are Action movies more present among mid-Budget movies now than
before? Skip to Result.
- are non-Action Comedies less present among mid-Budget movies now
than before? Skip to Result.
3. Before — what movies were preferred and how long were they
- Among top box office performers, Were Action movies more present
than non-Action Comedies? Skip to Result.
- Among mid box office performers, Were Action movies more present
than non-Action Comedies? Skip to Result.
- Were Action movies longer than non-Action Comedies?
Skip to Result.
- Were the top box office performers longer than the mid box office
performers? Skip to Result.
To learn how certain parameters were defined, explanation here.
Results
- Blockbuster Movies got 6 minutes longer: The biggest budget
films of each year did get longer, on average, by 6
minutes.
Table 3: Movie Runtimes of the yearly Top 50 Highest Budget films —
2009-2015 vs 2016-2022 (excluding 2020)
|
|
Before (2009-2015)
|
After (2016-2022)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
350
|
300
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
81
|
82
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
115.2
|
121.0
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
113.5
|
118.5
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
180
|
242
|
- Mid-Budget Movies barely got longer: These movies saw a slight
increase of 2 minutes in average runtime.
- Current Action vs Comedy trends:
- Action: Studios now make 5% more Blockbuster and
5% more Mid-Budget movies that are Action than before
(62% vs 57% and 38% vs 33%).
- Non-Action Comedy: Studios now make 7% fewer
Blockbuster and 9% fewer Mid-Budget movies
that are non-Action Comedies than before. This means the Mid-Budget
movies went from having as many Action movies as non-Action Comedies in
2009-2015 to having 14% more Action movies than non-Action Comedies in
2016-2022.
- Movie types themselves are getting longer: Action
movies are 6 minutes longer now and non-Action Comedies are 3 minutes
longer, on average.
- Past Moviegoer Preferences:
- Highest-grossing movies were 6 minutes longer than
the next-highest-grossing movies.
- Highest-grossing movies had more Action flicks than
non-Action Comedies (45% vs 33%).
- Next-highest grossing movies had fewer Action flicks than
non-Action Comedies (28% vs 38%).
Limitations
Generalizing Blockbuster and Mid-Budget films
The fifty highest budget and the next fifty highest budget films are
grouped as Blockbuster and Mid-Budget films, respectively, even though
there could be high variation in budget within the two groups. Second,
the variation itself may change over time, meaning the fifty highest
budget films could represent a different proportion of Hollywood
expenses in 2009 than in 2016. That is, if a movie studio’s strategy
changes from making a few midsize movies per year to one huge movie,
then perhaps the definition for a Blockbuster should change accordingly
and cover fewer movies now than before.
Bigger budget does not necessarily mean theatrical release
My assumption that higher budget movies are more likely to play in
theaters may not hold for all movies, especially in today’s streaming
era. This was made evident by a Hollywood
Reporter article, in which actor Glen Powell is quoted saying he and
Anyone But You
(2023) co-star and producer Sydney Sweeney turned down bigger
budgets from streamers in order to give their romantic comedy a proper
theatrical release.
No 2023 Data
The most recent data I have is of 2022, meaning I’m missing a full
year of the most recent movies (2023). One year doesn’t sound so bad,
but the analysis is meant to explore a recent trend so it would’ve been
nice to have the most recent data.
Dashboard Plug
The results of the analysis are specific to how Blockbuster and
Mid-Budget films were defined, and to the time periods used for the
‘Before’/‘After’ analysis. Other approaches to a movie runtime
investigation could be perfectly valid, which is why I built a dashboard
letting you explore the IMDb movie runtime data how you wish. With the
tool, you can see how movie runtime varies over time and by genre or
production company. You can filter the movies based on release year,
budget, box office gross, director and other characteristics. Please
note, however, that as in any analysis, the movies you’re including (or
excluding) should affect your interpretations accordingly. All the plots
and tables in this post were produced using the dashboard linked
here.
Summary
Comedies and Action ficks
They were never the biggest box office performers, but comedies
performed nonetheless. They were even more common among mid-budget films
than Action movies were. This is no longer the case, as the 2+ hour MCU,
DCU, Kong, Jumanji, and all other Action-y franchises became an even
bigger part of the recent years’ mainstream films.
These findings are consistent with the idea that studios are relying
on superheroes and other I.P.-based “amusement park” movies to draw us
out from our streaming services-infused homes. Streaming services, as Matt
Damon explains, also led to the death of DVD sales and rentals,
which had provided production companies a considerable extra cushion of
revenue. If the convenience of at-home, on-demand entertainment and lack
of DVD revenue leads production companies to adopt a “go big or go home”
strategy for theater releases, then they might think to double down on
the highest grossing movie types, which we saw were Action more than
Comedy in 2009-2015. And since these Action films are generally longer
than Comedies, then it makes sense mainstream movies are seeing an
increase in runtime.
In addition, though, Action films themselves are getting longer in
runtime - also by a 6 minutes average. One explanation is related to the
second limitation: there are various subtypes of
Action movies, so perhaps longer-running subtypes have become more
frequent than before, thereby increasing the average runtime for all
Action movies. Post-credit scenes, which are now a commonplace element
of franchise movies, may also be responsible for a small increase in
average runtime.
Closing thoughts
We used to be a country that watched 100-minute-long Comedy movies in
a Cineplex Odeon theater. From 2009 to 2015, we had two Grown Ups and
three Hangover films grace our cinemas, all of which were between 100
and 102 minutes in runtime, and made $200 to $550 million each. The year
2011 saw two Rom Coms called No Strings Attached and Friends with
Benefits grace our theaters; they shared the same exact premise and yet
both grossed $150 million worldwide each. Now, Adam Sandler movies go
straight to Netflix,
The Hangover director is onto his second Joker film, and Romantic
Comedies… go straight to Netflix (or Hulu, Prime, and so on).
Can non-Action movies make a theatrical comeback? According to a survey
conducted by The Cinema Foundation, people want to watch more comedies
in theaters. Anyone But You’s box office success is evidence of this
sentiment, and we’ve since seen other
producers choose theatrical releases over a big Netflix cheque.
Moreover, in his Academy Award acceptance speech for writing American Fiction, Cord
Jefferson called out studios’ blockbuster-obsessed nature and advocated
“Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 10 $20 million
movies”. He was met with applause but who knows how earnest. In the
meantime, we can go out and enjoy one of the fewer - but still present -
shorter
movies released in theaters. Maybe you can watch two since they’re
so short.
Appendix
A1: Defining ‘Mainstream’, distinguishing between ‘Mid-Budget’ and
‘Blockbuster’, and choosing our ‘Before’ and ‘Now’ periods
Mainstream
I’d consider mainstream movies to be the most accessible to the
average moviegoer. The IMDb-provided variable that is most related to
accessibility (in my opinion) is movie budget. That is, the greater the
budget of a movie, the more I’d expect it to be given a wide theatrical
release and be part of “the mainstream culture”. Since there are about
100 movies released in theaters per year (according to statista),
I define mainstream movies as those among the top 100 budget films of
their given release year.
Blockbuster vs Mid-Budget
To obtain an even split from the 100 Mainstream movies, I define the
top 50 budget films of each year as Blockbuster films and the next 50 as
Mid-Budget films. That is, for every year considered in the analysis,
the hundred movies with the highest budgets will be included. Of those
hundred, the fifty with the highest budget will be treated as
Blockbusters and the remaining fifty will be treated as Mid-Budget.
‘Before’ and ‘Now’
The ‘Before’ period is set to be the years 2009 to 2015. I think
these years represent the start of the MCU, from their very first hit in
Iron Man (2009) (126
minutes) to their first Avengers films (143 and 141
minutes, respectively) in which standalone characters crossed over with
each other, grossing billions of dollars and solidifying the ‘Universe’.
This time also covers Netflix’s rise in popularity, and the start of
streaming services original programming (which was both popular and critically acclaimed).
The ‘Now’ period is 2016 to 2022, with 2020 excluded due to the
outlier-like impact COVID-19 had on film that year. This era saw the peak of the MCU (181
minutes), the advent of so many other I.P.-based movie universes, and the
ubiquity of streaming services.
A2: Results by question
1. Are Movies Getting Longer
a) Are blockbusters getting longer?
Table 3: Movie Runtimes of the yearly Top 50 Highest Budget films of
2009-2015 vs 2016-2022 (excluding 2020)
|
|
Before (2009-2015)
|
After (2016-2022)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
350
|
300
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
81
|
82
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
114.9
|
121.1
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
113
|
119
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
180
|
242
|
b) Are mid-budget movies getting longer?
Table 4: Movie Runtimes of the yearly 51st-100th Highest Budget films of
2009-2015 vs 2016-2022 (excluding 2020)
|
|
Before (2009-2015)
|
After (2016-2022)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
350
|
300
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
63
|
78
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
109.9
|
111.9
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
108
|
110
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
181
|
178
|
c) Are Action movies getting longer?
Table 5: Movie Runtimes of the top 50 highest budget Action films —
2009-2015 vs 2016-2022 (excluding 2020)
|
|
Before (2009-2015)
|
After (2016-2022)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
350
|
300
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
79
|
78
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
113.3
|
118.7
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
111
|
117
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
165
|
242
|
d) Are Comedy movies getting longer?
Table 6: Movie Runtimes of the top 50 highest budget non-Action Comedy
films — 2009-2015 vs 2016-2022 (excluding 2020)
|
|
Before (2009-2015)
|
After (2016-2022)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
350
|
300
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
63
|
80
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
102.6
|
106.3
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
101
|
103
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
180
|
189
|
2. Are longer movie types becoming more common than before, and
shorter movie types less common
a) Are Action movies more present among Blockbusters now than
before?
b) are non-Action Comedies less present among Blockbusters now than
before?
d) are non-Action Comedies less present among mid-Budget movies now
than before?
d) are non-Action Comedies less present among mid-Budget movies now
than before?
3. Before — what movies were preferred and how long were they
a) Among top box office performers, Were Action movies more present
than non-Action Comedies?
b) Among mid box office performers, Were Action movies more present
than non-Action Comedies?
c) Were Action movies longer than non-Action Comedies?
Table 7: Movie Runtimes of the top 50 highest budget Action vs
non-Action Comedy films — 2009-2015
|
|
Group A (Action-less Comedies)
|
Group B (Action flicks)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
300
|
300
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
80
|
78
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
106.3
|
118.6
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
103
|
117
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
189
|
242
|
d) Were the top box office performers longer than the mid box office
performers?
Table 8: Movie Runtimes of the 1-50 highest grossing vs 51-100 highest
grossing films — 2009-2015
|
|
Group A (Next-Highest Grossing)
|
Group B (Highest Grossing)
|
|
Number of Movies
|
300
|
300
|
|
Shortest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
83
|
81
|
|
Mean Movie Runtime (mins)
|
111.8
|
117.5
|
|
Median Movie Runtime (mins)
|
108
|
115
|
|
Longest Movie Runtime (mins)
|
189
|
192
|