When it comes to frames per second (FPS), most would agree that more means better. Higher FPS means smoother, more realistic visuals and more visual information every second, which should give it a clear advantage. This is certainly true in terms of gaming, where studies show that a higher frame rate improves your performance. However, even though 60 FPS is the lowest most people are comfortable gaming at, modern blockbusters still follow the century-old standard of 24 FPS. Avid gamers say that even 30 FPS is too choppy and almost unplayable for most modern multiplayer games. So what makes the films different?
60 FPS and higher frame rates work for gaming because the more information you get each second, the faster you can react. This is necessary for competitive, fast-paced shooters and games where quick reflexes are important, but not so much for watching a movie. Initially, the 24 FPS standard was created out of necessity: early silent films could go as low as 16 FPS on hand-cranked cameras, but this number had to be increased for audio synchronization. All the major filmmakers of the time agreed that this number should be 24 FPS. It was also much cheaper to shoot at 24 frames than at higher frame rates, because more frames required more film, and more film meant higher production costs.
Visuals that are too smooth don’t look cinematic enough
However, even if there were reasons for this in the past, why do movies still use 24 FPS or 30 FPS instead of 60 FPS? Several psychological and economic factors explain this, but also the evolution of cinema. Since almost all motion pictures of the last century used 24 FPS, people subconsciously equate this frame rate with a cinematic aesthetic. Filmmakers have tried higher frame rates, such as 2012’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (shot at 48 FPS) and 2016’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” (shot at 120 FPS), but audience reception has repeatedly been poor.
The reason 24 FPS works so well for movies, and 60 FPS seems strange and unnatural, has to do with realism. Viewers associate this lower FPS with a cinematic feel, and overly smooth visuals appear too realistic, causing the so-called soap opera effect. A higher FPS works for certain types of live-action content, such as TV sitcoms and late-night talk shows. However, in narrative films or action sequences, the added realism can make it more difficult for viewers to become immersed in the story.
A higher frame rate is also much more unforgiving when it comes to errors. Every movement is emphasized, making flaws much more apparent. It’s also harder to fix issues in post-production, because smoother movement makes changes more visible. With a lower FPS, you have less time to notice flaws, and post-production fixes and motion blur can hide small issues.
Storage space and Internet bandwidth
Physical film is rarely used today, but the same factor that drove up costs in the past still applies. Each frame of a movie is a still frame, and each frame occupies a certain amount of data; if you double the number of images, you double the storage space needed.
For example, recording 4K footage at 24 FPS on an ARRI ALEXA 35 camera, often used in cinema, takes 1.24 TB per hour of footage, or 21.2 GB per minute. If we recorded the same footage at 60 FPS, an hour would require 3.1 TB, while a minute would require almost 53 GB. Modern films also capture much more footage than the final cut – in some cases, up to 480 hours for a 2-hour film, such as in “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Add to that the fact that 8K recording quadruples the storage space required and hard drive prices are rising rapidly, and you can see why frame rate can significantly affect production costs.
It’s not just the companies that make these films; consumers also suffer. Even though the final cut and compressed version of a film is much smaller than the raw footage, it can still take up a lot of space. 2023’s “Oppenheimer,” for example, takes up about 100 GB on a 4K Blu-ray, which is already close to the maximum capacity of a triple-layer Blu-ray disc. If the same movie were distributed at 60 FPS, it would require over 200 GB, which would far exceed the capacity of any commercially available optical disc. The same goes for online streaming. Increasing the number of frames also increases the bandwidth required to stream said movie.
