Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter published an article assessing the latest box office projections for Avengers: Endgame. In the final paragraph, the piece mentioned that the film’s runtime sits at a hefty 3 hours and 58 seconds.
This certainly wasn’t the first alleged runtime for the Avengers: Infinity War sequel that we’ve heard in recent weeks. Last month, for example, the leading rumor was that the film was at 3 hours and 2 minutes. But given the credibility of the source and the exactness of THR’s figure, there was reason to believe that 3 hours and 58 seconds was the real deal.
Sure enough, in an interview with ComicBook.com, co-director Joe Russo gave this same number when asked the length of the film.
“I think it’s 3 hours and 58 seconds,” Russo said, before adding with a laugh, “We just sped up the credits is what we did.”
While the Russo Brothers still have a couple more weeks to make some last-minute adjustments, it sounds like this might well be the final figure, making Endgame roughly 32 minutes longer than last year’s Infinity War.
With the film’s marketing now in full swing, Anthony and Joe Russo have been at CinemaCon this week, where guests were treated to a few minutes of footage from this month’s release. According to Joe, the two of them “didn’t even know they were showing that,” making this a rare instance where the directors were being kept in the dark about Endgame, and not just the fans.
According to those who were there, the excerpt ran almost 5 minutes and proved quite revealing, with its scenes of the gang plotting to kill Thanos before blasting off into space. Still, we’ll find out what secrets Avengers: Endgame has hidden in the other 176 minutes of its runtime when the film hits theaters on April 26th.