Screenwriting : 90 minute limit by Hector Valle

That's a very good and time appropriate question. I've always thought the page count shouldn't be an issue if there's a great story to keep the reader/viewer entertained, within reason of course. I'd be interested to see the responses.

I think a great movie will be about 105 minutes... give or take... anything over 2 hours will probably lose the magic and attention of the audience.

From experience as a writer-producer, I can tell you that the 90 minute limit is a huge deal in the indie world. If you want a network TV deal, which is often critical to getting a theatrical distribution MG, you often can't even screen an unknown movie that's over ~90mins.

Streaming only changes this if you're willing to take an exclusive VOD deal, which is unlikely to be as lucrative and can come with payment term complications.

In many cases, you'll also find feature writing assignment contracts dictate a total page count of around 90-120pp for similar reasons.

Amateur writers with portfolios full of 120pp and above specs are potentially limiting their opportunities as savvy indie producers know they need lean material to maximise their returns.

Just saw an article about it, which you can read to get your answer https://whatculture.com/film/why-were-90-minute-length-films-a-touchston...

2+, 3hours movies have been done in many Asian countries since years. It's because we have a snack break in between where people can go out, grab something to bite on to. And our cinema is more derived from a different culture of road show dramas which run for hour long and at times whole night with multiple events, genre, musical style going on. Just like "Burning man" event., In India we call these kind of movies as "MASALA movies" and we also got something called MASS movies where it's mostly done for HERO/HEROINE centric films where they are portrayed like extremely powerful character and these movies are 2+ hours long.

If you been to any Indian restaurant, you can order a "Thali/full plate meal": Meal served on big plates with many recipes . And they serve every flavors in one big plate: sweet, sour, bitter, spice, salty, etc which you can enjoy. Similar are these Indian MASALA Movies. It got all kind of genres: Drama, action, comedy, music so on. Sometimes say in theater audience don't want to watch a song in the movie, they can go out of theater grab a tea/coffee break or smoke a cigarette and come back watch rest of the movie while it will be playing still. That's how is the movie going experience in India. Mostly like 2, 3 hours relaxed time. And if your film can't impress the audience in first few days of a week, it won't be there for long anyway and they will remove it as you can't pay for showing it for longer.

Even few American movies too were made which broke that 90min limit as in the article and it depends on the story arc I feel if it' truly requires extending.

Every industry got it's own reasons and understanding of how long an audience are comfortable enjoying a film and also how cinema houses can make business not just with film alone but snacks, promotions of other movies and so on.. For instance modern cinema houses also got exorbitant prices of snacks, drinks, AC so on. I heard a Filipino filmmaker recently made a 6 hour long movie too.

Now coming down to streaming platforms, I'm kind of uncomfortable with it, I would lean towards theatrical release if my film ever come out but that's everyone's wish too isn't?

I mean streaming platforms are really good for we all new age filmmakers, which gives space to showcase what we can do and yes there we can flex our film lengths considering most audience can pause and play it and many are now used to watching web series. So it's good but also it kind of got it's own weakness too.

Personally I feel streaming platforms will gradually lower the film's quality in itself as an art form. Because than it will be more looked like any "content" which you usually get on these other platforms like youtube, tiktok or instagrammers galore . When we see "Films" or "Cinema" in the context of content only that gets too saturated in audience's mind that it than becomes pretty hard to define what really is good film when we are constantly being filtered down so many films as well as the algorithm of these platforms and way technology checks upon us constantly will give us stuff which we are kind of getting used to and it psychologically never really helps us to broader our knowledge, views, different perspectives to see what is good or bad cinema as an art form. It will train our brain to think that everything is one and the same like I often say "FARM CHICKENS" (Emotional numbing effect). Now this is whole different debate.

But yes streaming platforms helps every filmmaker to extend film lengths but they got to handle it if they plan to release it on theaters later or both. IMO people just got to write in 90 to 120 min/pages script and later based on how producers collab they will decide where they are going to show their films. These are all post production and distribution connections which decides. And there is always going to be more film-stocks available with a director wanting to show it than to reduce confined to 90min I feel.

I start looking at my watch in the Two Hour+ movies. There are very few movies I wish could go on and on. There are some, but not that many.

If it's any longer we need an intermission

Charise Sowells those were the days (:

Since the "new normal" means that people can just pause whenever, I think the structure is going away. Which is why so much is shifted towards episodic storytelling. You could have probably told "The Queens Gambit" in a feature length stretch. But people want to binge watch a season now... But I agree with what everyone has said: The story dictates. The script for M:I Two was like what... 40 pages long? (hence the slow-mo doves and flamenco dancers)...

You'se guys seem to make up and abide by your own rules.

Be careful of going too much the other way on a production script. It's wise to have some contingency.

This is a great discussion. My last two scripts have been 103 and 105. Now I think it might be wise for me to go back into them and make some more cuts. Now that I have become desensitized to murdering "my darlings" it's so much easier to cut the length. In one of my scripts that I wound up cutting 12 pages from the original.

Some of the contests I've entered believe a 100-page script is light. I try to stay above 100 pages if at all possible.

To quote Hitchcock: "The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."

Oh, and I was unnecessarily worried about my script 'Dilemma in the Dundakaranya'; it is just 65 pages long!

I think back to the days of VHS. There were 3 films that come to mind that had to be split up onto 2 tapes because of their length: Titanic, Braveheart, and The Green Mile. All three of them had major star power, but they also had great stories to them as well. I think that would possibly the flip side to the showings-per-day argument: if you have a 3-hour film showing 4-5 times a day, and those theaters are all sold out, then you'll make more money than if you show several other features with theaters only half-full or worse.

Streaming is potentially changing that game, but you have to have a great story to begin with either way.