Editors like a single cliff. Play reports sometimes offer one: a slope at minute eighteen, a second at the credits. In the room the cliff is usually a pile of smaller exits.
In a Cheras sitting last March the drama held until a recipe card sat on the lower third while the mother was already in the kitchen. She did not “drop off.” She went to boil water, missed the card, and came back confused. The play-head still showed the title running. The log showed an empty sofa for four minutes.
A Damansara household paused at minute twenty-two because a school group chat lit three phones at once. They resumed. They did not resume at the same line. One person had skipped back; two had not. The argument that followed was longer than the scene.
A third home never paused. They simply talked over a quiet stretch until the scene felt optional. Volume stayed the same. Eyes did not.
If you only trim the minute eighteen “problem,” you may cut the one stretch that was holding. Bring a drop-off review the actual minutes, not the average. We mark kitchen trips as kitchen trips. We do not rename them engagement.