Add a movie runtime to its start time, account for trailers, and handle a finish after midnight. A clock and elapsed-time ribbon make each step visible.
Open the movie end time calculator · More Miscellaneous videos
The calculation
End time = start time + runtime + separately counted extras
Worked example
A 7:45 p.m. start plus 140 minutes ends at 10:05 p.m. If 20 minutes of trailers begin at the advertised start, the finish is 10:25 p.m. A separate 11:30 p.m. start plus 120 minutes finishes at 1:30 a.m. the next day.
Be clear whether the start time means the advertised showtime or the start of the feature. Add only the extra intervals that apply.
Video chapters
- 0:00 — When does a 7:45 p.m. movie end?
- 0:13 — Add the whole hours first
- 0:27 — Cross the next hour carefully
- 0:41 — The all-minutes method gives the same result
- 0:57 — Separate showtime from feature start
- 1:14 — Past midnight means the next day
- 1:30 — Subtract the start to check the duration
- 1:46 — Start + duration + counted extras
Read the full transcript
A movie begins at seven forty-five in the evening and runs for two hours and twenty minutes. When does it finish? The key is that a clock uses sixty minutes per hour. You cannot add the minute digits as if they were decimal fractions.
Start by adding the two full hours. Seven forty-five becomes nine forty-five. The minute hand stays at forty-five while the hour hand advances. Keep the remaining twenty minutes separate so you can see which part of the duration is still unused.
From nine forty-five, fifteen minutes takes you to ten o'clock. Five more minutes uses the rest of the twenty-minute remainder. The movie ends at ten oh five p.m. Crossing the hour changed both the hour number and the minute display.
You can also use minutes after midnight. Nineteen forty-five is one thousand one hundred eighty-five minutes. Add the one hundred forty-minute runtime to get one thousand three hundred twenty-five. Divide into whole hours and leftover minutes: twenty-two hours and five minutes.
Now suppose seven forty-five is the advertised showtime, with twenty minutes of trailers before the feature. Add that extra interval once. The end shifts from ten oh five to ten twenty-five. Confirm whether the quoted runtime already includes credits before adding any credit time.
Try a late screening: eleven thirty p.m., plus two hours. Thirty minutes reaches midnight. The remaining ninety minutes reaches one thirty a.m. The clock wraps around, but elapsed time does not disappear. Label the result as the next day.
To check the original answer, count from seven forty-five to ten oh five. That is two hours to nine forty-five, then twenty minutes more. For planning, distinguish the end of playback from leaving the theater; a pause or exit buffer is another separate interval.
Add full hours, then minutes, carrying each sixty minutes into an hour. Include trailers or pauses only when they are outside the stated runtime. Track the date across midnight. In the original example, seven forty-five plus two hours twenty minutes is ten oh five p.m.