By When Matt Reeves’ The Batman releases this March, you better make sure to get your affairs in order before heading out to the theater. According to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, the caped crusader’s return to the silver screen will come with a rather hefty run-time: 175 minutes, which is roughly three hours long. That length was spotted thanks to the film recently receiving a PG-13 rating, indicating that it’s pretty much a done deal at this point.
This runtime will make the film the longest Batman movie ever released and one of the longest superhero movies in general. Zack Snyder’s Justice League beats it by nearly 80 extra minutes, but that extended cut never hit the big screen. As far as theatrically viewable films go, only Avengers: Endgame beats The Batman and by just six minutes.
While I typically don’t go for extravagantly long films, I don’t think the reported two hours and 55 minutes is inherently bad. Taken in a vacuum, the number means absolutely nothing. Without knowing where the plot goes or how The Batman fleshes out its characters, we can only speculate on why Reeves felt the need to make the film so long. A good recent example would be No Time To Die, which ran 163 minutes. Certainly a long film, it had great pacing and never felt like a bore.
What I will say is that you probably shouldn’t get a massive soda or water when entering the theater. If you simply cannot resist eating while seeing movies, maybe wait for a streaming release. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the return of intermissions for longer films?
Source: THR
