kristin's profile

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Tuesday, July 15th, 2025

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Problem with Running Times on Vertical dramas

Hello. Vertical Dramas are starting to be a big thing, already over 1 thousand titles on IMDb https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?keywords=vertical-drama&explore=keywords https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/apr/04/tv-serials-vertical-drama-phones-grip-viewers I’m having trouble getting a Running time on the titles Main Page. Help says: https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/running-times/G8UMSUYEDCN3M2K8# “Only one running time is shown on a title's main IMDb page. (…) To identify this running time, we will use any item with a blank attribute, (…). “ But Vertical Dramas will never have a running time with a blank attribute… Example: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34662008/ Total runtime is: 1 hour 20 min 25 seconds. I added this as 80 min (since there is no field for seconds). But help says: “The total running time of an entire series can also be added once the series has completed, but this must have the attribute (entire series).” So, since this has an attribute, it will not end up on a title's main IMDb page. The problem with verticals is that each episode varies between less than a minute and 3 minutes usually, in my example with 58 episodes, and a total of 80 minutes and 25 seconds, average runtime per episode is aprox 1.38 seconds, so I must choose between adding 1 minute and 2 minutes as running time, but this IS very approximate. (both 1 minute and 2 minutes will give the wrong impression, and the viewer will think the entire series takes 1 hour or 2 hours, when the reality is 1 hour and 19 minutes and 25 sec) , so I have to add the “approximate” attribute, and again, according to help article, as long as an attribute is added, Running time will not end up on a title's main IMDb page. Finding the hidden running times on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34662008/ requires you to be a VERY technical experienced IMDb user... So how do you get a Running time on a title's main IMDb page for Vertical Dramas?

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18 days ago

@kristin Yes, this is possible — take the total running time and divide by the number of episodes; round this number up to the nearest minute. In this case 80/58 = 1.379 so round this up to 2 minutes and add it at the series level without an attribute — there’s no need to add an “(approx)” attribute as this is implied here. You may optionally add individual episode running times to each episode.

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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34662008/ Tried to add running time to episode 1 now, its 2 minutes and 19 secs = 139 seconds, but there is only field for minutes, and I am not able to enter (seconds) as an attribute... So if every of the 58 episodes shall be rounded up or down it still will be a total running time that is totally off, so that is not an option for shoving total runtime. I also don't think this is implied to new viewers of verticals, if I drop the "aprox" on series level running time, when they then see 2 minutes, and then 58 episodes, logically they will think it will take them 58ep x 2 min = 1 hour and 56 minutes to watch the whole thing. A lot watch these series in one go as a movie and in my mind there is a big difference between a Movie taking approx 2 hours to watch and taking 1 hour and 19 minutes. 40 minutes difference is very approx...

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@kristin This is why we also support the (entire series) attribute on https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34662008/technical/ We appreciate that this is not ideal, but this is the best we can do within the limits of the current system, sorry. If 2 x 58 is too far away from the actual entire running time then perhaps the better option is to submit a 1 minute average running time at the series level.