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The two-hour movie's days are numbered, says 'Avengers: Infinity War' director

Avengers: Infinity War (Credit: Marvel/Disney)
Avengers: Infinity War (Credit: Marvel/Disney)

The age of the two-hour movie could be coming to an end, reckons Joe Russo, one of the directors of Avengers: Infinity War.

Russo, who was speaking alongside his brother and directorial partner Anthony, made the remarks while speaking at the Business Insider conference Ignition in New York.

“We are in a major moment of disruption,” Russo said (via Deadline).

“The two-hour film has had a great run for about 100 years but it’s become a very predictive format. It’s difficult, I think, to work in it.

“It’s sort of like saying, ‘We all like sonnets, so let’s tell sonnets for 100 years, as many ways as we possibly can… I’m not sure that this next generation that is coming up is going to see two-hour narrative as the predominant form of storytelling for them.”

Black Panther (Credit: Marvel Studios/Disney via AP)
Black Panther (Credit: Marvel Studios/Disney via AP)

Russo suggesting the two-hour movie has been the staple for some time (or ‘100 years’ as he exaggerates), however, isn’t really the case.

Only since the late 90s and early 2000s have run-times been slowly creeping up, with taut, 90-minute action movie being hugely prevalent before then.

Marvel movies are among the worst culprits for extended run-times in recent years, with Infinity War clocking in at 149 minutes, the longest Marvel movie so far.

Rarely does a Marvel movie clock in less than two full hours.

The Russo’s Captain America: Civil War was 147 minutes, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was 137 minutes, Thor: Ragnarok was 130 minutes, and Black Panther was a sturdy 134 minutes.

It’s said that the fourth Avengers movie is currently running at around three hours, though that will likely be shaved down some before release in May, 2019.

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