At some point this year, while occasionally scrolling my Google-based news feed on my phone, I noticed that more and more articles about movies had the duration of the film in the headline. 95 minutes.. 95 minutes.. 105 minutes.. 116 minutes.. 132 minutes. Uh, why? What normal human reads that and thinks “oh 116 minutes is perfect!” or “that’s only 1.93333 hours!” This kind of lazy writing was a flashback to when I pointed out how Forbes was lazy in writing about Google Chrome.
Yet as the weeks went by it seemed like more and more titles did this. It’s a stupid trend that should stop. If one of the most important aspects of the movie is how many minutes it runs, you aren’t exactly selling it on content. This type of lazy writing is just begging for automation and “AI” to take their jobs. Examples:
- Jason Statham’s Next 95-Minute Action Thriller Hit Officially Releases in 1 Month
- Netflix’s New 96-Minute Action Thriller Crowned One of the Biggest Hits on Streaming
- Jason Statham’s 105-Minute Action Thriller Is Now One of the Biggest Movies on Streaming
- The 116-Minute Sci-Fi Action Epic That’s Currently Making a Comeback on Streaming
- Forget John Wick, Netflix’s New 132-Minute Action Thriller Quickly Crowned a Streaming Smash Hit
These all originate at MovieWeb, which seems to be the biggest offender, but certainly not the only one. This blog is also far from comprehensive in that I only took note of 25 articles over many weeks, with gaps when I didn’t read through that news source at all. I had collected 21 so had to grab four more from that site to round it out. Based on the authors of the articles, it’s hard to tell if this has become a template they use, or just an unintentional bandwagon incident. But given just how many articles use that format on the site, it sure seems like a templated title. Within the 25 article sample group, three use “smash hit” too. And don’t get me started on the bad comparisons to John Wick.
It didn’t take long to notice the trend carried past MovieWeb though. I don’t care enough to dig further to try to determine where this originated either. CBR, SlashFilm, and ScreenRant all have headlines of the same style. For fun, just on this incredibly limited sample size I did a quick count to see the worst offender. If you click on the link from the author you can see their profile and that these are not isolated incidents.
| MovieWeb | James Melzer | 8 |
| MovieWeb | Jonathan Fuge | 6 |
| MovieWeb | Federico Furzan | 3 |
| MovieWeb | Archie Fenn | 2 |
| MovieWeb | Omar Faruque | 1 |
| MovieWeb | Manuel Demegillo | 1 |
| MovieWeb | Ernesto Valenzuela | 1 |
| MovieWeb | Marcos Melendez | 1 |
| CBR | Monica Coman | 1 |
| ScreenRant | Ben Sherlock | 1 |
| SlashFilm | Jeremy Smith | 1 |
From this small sample we can see that MovieWeb is the biggest offender as a publication, with Melzer in the lead. So once again, to all these article writers, please don’t be so lazy. If a TV show or movie is that good there are plenty of attributes you can mention in a headline rather than how many minutes it takes to watch. Hell, we don’t even know if the minute count includes opening sequences and/or the film credits.
The rest of the articles I had taken note of:
- Jon Bernthal’s 132-Minute Action Thriller Officially One of the Biggest Streaming Hits in the World – James Melzer – https://movieweb.com/jon-bernthal-the-accountant-2-action-streaming-prime-video-august-2026/
- Gerard Butler’s 129-Minute Action Thriller Is Now One of the Biggest Movies on Streaming –
- James Melzer – https://movieweb.com/gerard-butler-machine-gun-preacher-action-paramount-plus-august-2026/
- Joel Kinnaman’s 96-Minute Action Thriller Is Officially Prime Video’s Biggest Streaming Hit – Jeremy Smith – https://www.slashfilm.com/2241764/joel-kinnaman-action-thriller-icefall-streaming-prime-video-august-2026/
- Netflix Finds New Hit With Ryan Gosling’s 126-Minute Action Flick From ‘John Wick’ Creator –
- Federico Furzan – https://movieweb.com/the-fall-guy-ryan-gosling-netflix-hit-global-august-2026/
- Alan Ritchson’s 107-Minute Sci-Fi Thriller With 146M Views Gets Official Sequel Title – Monica Coman – https://www.cbr.com/alan-ritchson-war-machine-sequel-title/
- Bob Odenkirk’s New 91-Minute ‘John Wick’ Substitute Action Thriller Continues To Dominate Streaming – James Melzer – https://movieweb.com/bob-odenkirk-normal-action-streaming-hit-hbo-max-august-2026/
- Gal Gadot Goes Full Liam Neeson in New 84-Minute Action Thriller That Hits Netflix in September – Omar Faruque – https://movieweb.com/gal-gadot-the-runner-prime-video-september-release/
- Russell Crowe’s R-Rated 103-Minute Supernatural Thriller Getting New Release – Manuel Demegillo – https://movieweb.com/the-popes-exorcist-russell-crowe-4k-blu-ray-release/
- Jon Bernthal’s 123-Minute Action Thriller Officially Remains One of the Biggest Movies on Streaming – Federico Furzan – https://movieweb.com/jon-bernthal-the-amateur-streaming-hit-prime-video-august-2026/
- Netflix’s New 114-Minute Throwback Crime Thriller Is Officially the Biggest Movie on Streaming – James Melzer – https://movieweb.com/the-whisper-man-crime-thriller-streaming-hit-netflix-august-2026/
- Prime Video’s New 140-Minute Action Epic Is Officially A Global Hit on Streaming – James Melzer – https://movieweb.com/masters-of-the-universe-action-prime-video-streaming-july-2026/
- New Netflix 96-Minute Action Thriller Smash Hit Is Already Getting a Sequel – Jonathan Fuge – https://movieweb.com/netflix-sniper-no-nation-part-2-sequel-happening/
- Henry Cavill’s New 97-Minute Action Thriller Is Officially a Streaming Smash Hit – Jonathan Fuge – https://movieweb.com/in-the-grey-henry-cavill-streaming-hit-august-2026/
- Prime Video’s New 124-Minute Dystopian Action Thriller Soars on Streaming – James Melzer – https://movieweb.com/beast-race-action-prime-video-streaming-hit-august-2026/
- Anthony Mackie Leads New Sci-Fi Thriller From ‘Project Hail Mary’ Creator – Marcos Melendez – https://movieweb.com/anthony-mackie-sci-fi-thriller-audible-exoplanet/
- James Bond Meets Jason Bourne In Prime Video’s 107-Minute Action Thriller – Ben Sherlock – https://screenrant.com/tom-clancy-jack-ryan-ghost-war-bond-meets-bourne-movie/
- Russell Crowe to Lead New ‘Predator’-Esque Sci-Fi Action Thriller – Ernesto Valenzuela – https://movieweb.com/russell-crowe-bluefly-sci-fi-action-thriller/
- Quentin Tarantino’s 108-Minute Fantasy Action Hit Officially Returns to Streaming – Archie Fenn – https://movieweb.com/from-dusk-till-dawn-stream-paramount-august-2026/
- Amazon’s 134-Minute ‘Jason Bourne’ Substitute Crowned One of Biggest Action Thrillers on Streaming – Federico Furzan – https://movieweb.com/agent-zeta-prime-video-streaming-hit-august-2026/
- Amazon Leaks Jason Statham’s New 95-Minute Action Thriller Straight to Streaming – Jonathan Fuge – https://movieweb.com/amazon-stream-jason-statham-mutiny-mistake/
- HBO Max Scores Big With New 91-Minute ‘John Wick’ Substitute Action Thriller – James Melzer – https://movieweb.com/normal-bob-odenkirk-action-streaming-hbo-max-august-2026/
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