Most movies are ninety minutes to two hours. Some are longer, veering toward three hours, but those tend to be more epic in scope, from established filmmakers and/or blockbuster franchises. However, for screenwriters trying to break into the industry, it is strongly recommended—if not required—to write spec screenplays between 90 and 120 pages (with one page of screenplay roughly equating to one minute of screen time). 

Most screenwriters struggle with writing too much and need to edit their scripts down. But what do you do if your screenplay is too short? Say you’ve written a complete story, exactly how you want it, and it comes out between 50 and 75 pages. That’s too long for a short film, but too short for a feature. Do you add more scenes just to extend it, even though the scenes are unnecessary and would ultimately weaken the script?

Or does that mean the screenplay has an inherently flawed structure if it doesn’t come out to at least 90 pages? Screenplays are unique from novels in that they have a more rigid structure: three acts (beginning, middle, and end) of about 30 pages each (the middle act can be extended to 60 pages). As a result of this structure and the inherent constraints of the medium, movies tend to be more formulaic than novels.

So in my example, do you extend the script (drag out that second act) or leave it as is? Why not have a 65-minute feature film? People often complain about movies being too long, and they mostly stream movies online anyway, so there’s no need to make movies longer just so audiences (and theaters) feel like they “got their money’s worth” for the ticket price. If a movie is streamed for free (minus your monthly subscription fee), then you’d rather watch a shorter movie that tells a full satisfying story in a shorter amount of time. Because then you would have more time to watch another satisfying movie. A 60-minute movie would be like a television episode, but it would be self-contained, not part of a series. The problem with TV shows is they never end—the stories go on forever. 

People claim they don’t have time to watch a 2.5-hour movie, yet they will gladly watch a 12-hour TV series when the episodes are broken up into 50-minute chunks. Some longer movies could be presented on streaming services as a miniseries with five 30-minute episodes. That would be more of a psychological/marketing gimmick than an actual change in storytelling. But if modern audiences prefer to watch videos in shorter chunks, why not make a movie the same length as a single TV episode?

A “short movie” could tell a full story in about an hour (as opposed to two). Between the amount of content to watch and the alternative entertainment options, people don’t have as much time as they used to. To stay relevant, movies may need to adapt to the times. Black Mirror has essentially already done this. Though technically labeled as a television series, it is an anthology of self-contained 60-minute episodes—aka original movies, just shorter than traditional movies. Black Mirror is a show about the future, but its medium (streaming) and format (short movies) might be the future as well. (Likewise shorter novels, aka novellas, may be the future of fiction.) 

Longer movies will still exist and be necessary for certain material worthy of the length—but they should be the exception, not the rule. Deep stories that truly demand more time will likely work better as a miniseries anyway. Apparently Gen-Z does not watch movies, but perhaps they would if movies were shorter—not necessarily TikTok short, but Black Mirror short.

I suspect that in the future most movies will trend closer to the one-hour length because that’s more convenient for most audiences. Especially once AI-generated movies take off and Zoomers are creating their own movies. People have limited time, but they still want movies and entertainment. Humans crave hearing stories, like our ancient ancestors around the campfire. We need to hear full stories with an ending, but we don’t want to waste too much time. So tell a full story in as little time as possible.