Long gone are the days when big budget studio blockbusters were breezy affairs that blew past in two hours or less, with the most expensive projects tending to get longer and longer to satisfy the audience’s increased hunger for scale and spectacle.
Of course, there’s no reason why a lengthy movie can’t also be a very good one as recent history has shown on countless occasions, but there are still a lot of folks out there who remain skeptical about a four-hour version of Justice League.
Avengers: Endgame ran for three hours and even then it was still packed to bursting point with plot, characters and set pieces, but most people would probably agree that Wonder Woman 1984 could have done with shaving off more than a few of its 151 minutes. Meanwhile, as things stand, Kevin Feige is crossing his fingers in the hopes that Black Widow hits theaters as scheduled in May, but that’s looking less plausible with each passing day as rival studios pack up and flee further into 2021 once again.
However, the running time of Scarlett Johansson’s swansong as Natasha Romanoff has now been confirmed by Disney, with Black Widow set to clock in at 133 minutes, which isn’t bad by MCU standards. Only six of the franchise’s first 23 efforts came in at under two hours, with The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World tied at 112 minutes as the briefest entries in the shared universe to date.
As a prequel, there’s only so much plot that Black Widow can realistically contain by diving into the title heroine’s backstory while still planting seeds for the rest of Phase Four, but at least fans can now plan their bathroom breaks accordingly.
Published: Jan 26, 2021 12:30 pm