How long does it take?
Everything here runs to 2467h 38m. The 493 films are 980h 58m of that, and only 577h 54m of them is essential, across 277 films, so 41% of the film runtime here is optional. Pick by the time you actually have.
By how long you have
Under 7 hours
A couple of evenings
Short enough to finish across two nights without clearing your calendar. Mostly trilogies and franchises that stopped while they were ahead.
7 franchises
7 to 12 hours
A weekend
The classic marathon length: a Saturday and a Sunday, or a week of evenings if you would rather not lose a weekend to it.
21 franchises
12 to 25 hours
A week of evenings
Too long for one weekend, comfortable across a week at two or three hours a night. This is where most long-running horror and action series land.
19 franchises
Over 25 hours
The long haul
Multi-week commitments. Worth checking the essentials-only figure before starting, since for several of these it cuts the total roughly in half.
15 franchises
Every franchise, shortest first
Film runtimes are exact. Series are included only where a per-episode running time has been published, and how that is shown depends on what the source says. A single figure gives a tilde: Bleach states 24 minutes flat, so its total is accurate to well under a percent. A range gives a range, because live-action television almost always publishes one and the spread is not a rounding detail. The Mandalorian is 33 to 59 minutes an episode, which is the difference between four and a half hours and nearly eight. A series with no published runtime at all is named rather than estimated.
| Franchise | Films | Total | Essentials | Evenings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Demon Slayer+ 5 series not timed | 2 | 4h 32m | 4h 32m | 2 |
| Back to the Future | 3 | 5h 42m | 5h 42m | 2 |
| Chainsaw Manincl. 1 series | 1 | ~6h 16m | 1h 40m | 3 |
| Wicked | 3 | 6h 40m | 4h 58m | 3 |
| Kingsman | 3 | 6h 41m | 2h 9m | 3 |
| Men in Black | 4 | 6h 46m | 3h 24m | 3 |
| Knives Out | 3 | 6h 53m | 6h 53m | 3 |
| Sonicincl. 1 series | 3 | 7h 49m – 8h 49m | 5h 31m | 3 |
| Avatar | 3 | 9h 11m | 9h 11m | 4 |
| Mad Max | 5 | 9h 19m | 7h 32m | 4 |
| Shrek | 6 | 9h 21m | 4h 45m | 4 |
| Final Destination | 6 | 9h 25m | 6h 30m | 4 |
| Ghostbusters | 5 | 9h 29m | 3h 49m | 4 |
| Toy Story | 6 | 9h 43m | 4h 36m | 4 |
| Blade Runnerincl. 1 series | 5 | ~9h 54m | 4h 41m | 4 |
| Bourne | 5 | 10h | 5h 42m | 4 |
| Ocean's | 5 | 10h | 3h 58m | 4 |
| Twilight | 5 | 10h 8m | 10h 8m | 4 |
| Die Hard | 5 | 10h 13m | 4h 23m | 4 |
| Paranormal Activity | 7 | 10h 19m | 4h 21m | 4 |
| Insidious | 6 | 10h 22m | 3h 29m | 4 |
| Indiana Jones+ 1 series not timed | 5 | 10h 36m | 4h 2m | 4 |
| Evangelion+ 1 series not timed | 6 | 10h 44m | 9h 4m | 4 |
| Despicable Me | 7 | 10h 45m | 3h 13m | 4 |
| The Matrix | 5 | 10h 53m | 6h 43m | 4 |
| Karate Kid+ 1 series not timed | 6 | 11h 32m | 3h 59m | 4 |
| The Godfather | 4 | 11h 37m | 6h 17m | 4 |
| Hunger Games | 5 | 11h 45m | 9h 8m | 4 |
| Predator | 7 | 12h 1m | 5h 14m | 5 |
| Pirates | 5 | 12h 9m | 7h 43m | 5 |
| Scream | 7 | 13h 29m | 7h 36m | 5 |
| Elm Street | 9 | 14h 9m | 4h 59m | 5 |
| Dune+ 2 series not timed | 3 | 13h 26m – 15h 38m | 5h 21m | 5 |
| John Wickincl. 1 series | 5 | 14h 45m – 15h 39m | 8h 43m | 6 |
| Saw | 10 | 16h 11m | 7h 2m | 6 |
| Rocky | 9 | 16h 54m | 15h 10m | 6 |
| Mission: Impossible | 8 | 18h 21m | 16h 18m | 7 |
| The Conjuring | 10 | 18h 26m | 8h 13m | 7 |
| Friday the 13th | 12 | 18h 26m | 6h 3m | 7 |
| Transformers | 8 | 18h 32m | 6h 2m | 7 |
| Apes | 10 | 18h 45m | 13h 38m | 7 |
| Resident Evilincl. 1 series | 7 | 17h 43m – 19h 59m | 5h 1m | 7 |
| Halloween | 13 | 21h 4m | 6h 15m | 8 |
| Fast & Furious | 11 | 22h 58m | 18h 54m | 8 |
| The Purgeincl. 1 series | 5 | 21h 57m – 24h 57m | 4h 57m | 8 |
| Jujutsu Kaisenincl. 3 series | 1 | ~24h 22m | 1h 45m | 9 |
| Alienincl. 1 series | 9 | 23h 17m – 25h 49m | 10h 19m | 9 |
| MonsterVerseincl. 2 series | 5 | 23h 21m – 28h 1m | 10h 1m | 9 |
| X-Men | 13 | 25h 54m | 14h 26m | 9 |
| Harry Potter | 11 | 26h 28m | 19h 39m | 9 |
| Spider-Man | 17 | 35h 43m | 19h 32m | 12 |
| Middle-earthincl. 2 series | 7 | 35h 42m – 39h 42m | 9h 18m | 13 |
| Terminatorincl. 2 series | 6 | 36h 41m – 42h 54m | 6h 12m | 14 |
| Fullmetal Alchemistincl. 2 series | 2 | ~48h 44m | – | 17 |
| Jurassic Parkincl. 2 series | 7 | 46h 40m – 50h 56m | 11h | 17 |
| James Bond | 27 | 57h 52m | 26h 6m | 20 |
| DC+ 2 series not timed | 40 | 104h 7m – 113h 35m | 43h 40m | 37 |
| Naruto+ 2 series not timed | 11 | ~134h 54m | 1h 52m | 45 |
| Bleach+ 1 series not timed | 4 | ~168h 37m | – | 57 |
| MCU+ 2 series not timed | 38 | 169h 57m – 201h 23m | 68h 16m | 62 |
| Star Wars+ 1 series not timed | 13 | 172h 41m – 210h 13m | 24h 52m | 64 |
| Star Trekincl. 12 series | 14 | 678h 24m – 785h 40m | 13h 27m | 245 |
Evenings assume three hours a night.
Common questions
How long does it take to watch all the Marvel movies?
About 83h 3m for the 38 released MCU films with a known runtime, roughly 28 evenings at three hours a night. Watching only the titles marked essential brings it down to about 68h 16m.
What is the shortest movie franchise?
Demon Slayer, at about 4h 32m across 2 films. Back to the Future, Chainsaw Man, Wicked are the next shortest.
What can I watch in a weekend?
Anything between 7 and 12 hours: 21 franchises, including Mad Max, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, John Wick and The Godfather.
Do these totals include TV series?
Yes, where a per-episode running time has been published. Totals shown as a range are series whose runtime the source gives as a range, which for live-action is nearly always; a tilde means a single published figure. Star Trek is the clearest case: counting its twelve series moves it from 27 hours to somewhere between 678 and 786.
What does the essentials-only figure mean?
Every title on the site is marked as core to the throughline or safely skippable. The essentials-only figure adds up just the core ones, and for several long franchises it roughly halves the commitment.
WatchInOrder