‘Avengers: Endgame’ Runtime Still At 3 Hours, Say Russos

[Koby]

There is no shortage of mysteries to wrap up in Avengers: Endgame, but one of the biggest questions heading into the April 26 premiere date is just how long the Russo Brothers will take to tell this story. While speaking to the directing duo at Disney about the VFX in Avengers: Infinity War, Collider’s Steve Weintraub got an update on Endgame‘s runtime, which as of right now is still looking like the longest in the MCU’s eleven-year history. “We’re still at the three-hour mark,” Joe Russo said.

 

Stressing that there is still work to be done in the editing bay, the directors noted that Disney is definitely down for a three-hour epic if it hits the right beats:

 

“I think the studio is down with what the best story is. Right now, we think the movie is playing well and we’ve had great responses from our test audiences and we’re feeling very good about where it is. We’re still doing work to it. We’re not done with it. Again, this is a culmination film of 22 movies, it’s a lot of storytelling to work into it. Emotion is an intrinsic part of that to us. When you have to tell a really complicated story and you want strong emotional moments with the characters, it just requires a certain amount of real estate. This one, in particular, feels like three hours worth of real estate.”

 

Back in November of last year, the Russos revealed that “halfway through the editing process” Avengers: Endgame sat around three hours. Before that, in April, the directing duo told Collider that they expected Endgame to be longer than Infinity War, which topped out at two hours and 40 minutes.

So with Endgame still headed toward a three-hour runtime, has there been any talk of an intermission? (Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight, which had a three hour and seven minutes runtime, had a mid-point break in 2015.)

“We have screened the movie four times for audiences now,” Anthony Russo told us. “For the first three screenings, not a single person got up to go to the bathroom.”

[lanzev]

raaaah those four groups of people. they know. they know.

[Tanis]

Why is THREE HOURS such a huge deal? That used to be the NORM...but, I guess people are too damn fat and drink their giant sized soda to quickly.

[Koby]

13 minutes ago, Tanis said:

Why is THREE HOURS such a huge deal? That used to be the NORM...but, I guess people are too damn fat and drink their giant sized soda to quickly.

Hey I like the intermission just because I have a kid who, no matter what we do, ends up having to go potty at some point. Unfortunately it's probably never where the intermission happens, and even if it was the bathrooms would be full/chaotic since everyone will be there at the same time. \o/

 

So, being able to pause at home is a blessing, lol.

[Bluenoser]

I've always thought that any movie that ran over 2.5 hrs should be required to have a mid break intermission for the reason Koby cites in non adult films and for those whose bladders can only go so long within us adults (and that can have nothing to do with the stupid extreme pop sizes) as well.  That is me though...

[dealvidit]

9 hours ago, Bluenoser said:

I've always thought that any movie that ran over 2.5 hrs should be required to have a mid break intermission for the reason Koby cites in non adult films and for those whose bladders can only go so long within us adults (and that can have nothing to do with the stupid extreme pop sizes) as well.  That is me though...

I so agree with you, especially with the small bladder thing. Those large cokes never do settle lol.

[Predaking-117]

Fine by me. If I could sit through King Kong (2005) & Transformers: Age of Extinction without a restroom break, then I can do this as well. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Endgame does get cut down of lesser time & to have more showtimes at cinemas.