How Long Should a 'No Spoilers' Rule for Movie and TV Shows Last? A New Survey Found Out

If this year—which has been filled with highly anticipated pop culture events like the premiere of Avengers: Endgame and the arrival of Stranger Things season 3—has taught anything at all, it's that people get seriously angry about spoilers. And rightfully so. But sometimes, that "no spoilers" rule can feel like it goes on forever. It's just not realistic to expect people not to talk about major plot points in a TV series or movie franchise they love.

So how long should fans wait before dropping spoilers? A new survey provides some good guidelines. CBR reports that musicMagpie recently conducted a survey of 2000 UK residents aged 16 and older, asking them how long people should hold off on talking out loud and spilling the details on a particularly juicy twist in a recent movie or television series.

The answer, according to respondents, is 33 hours after a TV episode airs and 10 days after a film is released.

What is unclear, however, is how long folks are supposed to wait after the release of a series’ entire season, such as when Netflix drops all of Stranger Things at once. But given how prone we've all become to binge-watching, the same rule could very well appy.

The survey doesn’t apply to everything we watch—and plenty of people might have differing opinions on spoiler timing—but it at least provides some solid etiquette for most viewers, and a good guideline for media outlets like ours about when the *spoiler warning* warning is no longer needed.