Prepare to sit for a long while this summer. Matt Belloni of Puck News’ newsletter (details shared on Twitter from Puck News analyst Julia Alexander) has reported that Oppenheimer will be Christopher Nolan’s longest movie, with a runtime of about three hours. As post-production work is done on films to the last minute, an official runtime will be listed when we get closer to the film’s release this summer.
Movies are getting longer in recent years, from superhero blockbusters like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (two hours and 41 minutes, or 161 minutes) and The Batman (two hours and 56 minutes, or 176 minutes) to epics like Avatar: The Way of Water (three hours and 12 minutes, or 192 minutes). For fans of the director, this is nothing new as his longest works have been Interstellar (two hours and 49 minutes, 0r 169 minutes) and his final Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises (two hours and four minutes, or 164 minutes).
Christopher Nolan’s longest movie is now Oppenheimer with revealed runtime
Christopher Nolan’s OPPENHEIMER is about three hours long, according to sources who told Matt Belloni in his latest Puck dispatch. Those of us who are choosing to double feature OPPENHEIMER and BARBIE are going to really earn that viewing euphoria. pic.twitter.com/CnZLJ5U5qt
— julia alexander (@loudmouthjulia) March 24, 2023
A long runtime does not mean people will be swayed from Oppenheimer. The Way of Water, Wakanda Forever, The Batman, and Spider-Man: No Way Home have all proven that you can have success at the box office during the pandemic while pushing toward three hours or beyond. Currently, John Wick: Chapter 4 has been released, and at the time of writing, it had broken its franchise record of Thursday previews, setting it up for a massive opening weekend despite its increased length of two hours and 49 minutes (169 minutes).
The filmmaker has always been known for ambition and getting a stacked cast to join him on his latest project. The war drama, which follows the maker of the atomic bomb, will have loads of big names with Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Jack Quaid, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Gary Oldman, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, and more.