A researcher Stephen Follows has found that major wide-release films are becoming longer, even though the average film produced is produced. He examined the run times of 36,000 films released theatrically from 1980 to 2025, which have grown from 106 minutes in the 1990s and early 2000s to 114 minutes in recent years. Films with high budgets, like those with $100 million, tend to be longer. The genre most likely to be responsible for this growth is action films, which now average 128 minutes longer than they did decades ago. The rise of digital projection and studios' desire to make films feel like major events, along with increased interest in premium format theater tickets like IMAX. The biggest reason for the increase in length is that box office returns suggest viewers appreciate a longer film when it is a title they really want to see.