diff --git a/Modules/zipimport.c b/Modules/zipimport.c
index 3b8eb936b1b..91b8488c553 100644
--- a/Modules/zipimport.c
+++ b/Modules/zipimport.c
@@ -61,14 +61,15 @@ static int
 zipimporter_init(ZipImporter *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 {
 	char *path, *p, *prefix, buf[MAXPATHLEN+2];
-	Py_ssize_t len;
+	size_t len;
 
 	if (!_PyArg_NoKeywords("zipimporter()", kwds))
 		return -1;
 
-	if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s#:zipimporter", &path, &len))
+	if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s:zipimporter", &path))
 		return -1;
 
+	len = strlen(path);
 	if (len == 0) {
 		PyErr_SetString(ZipImportError, "archive path is empty");
 		return -1;