When a long-awaited blockbuster hits the cinemas, a discussion erupts on the internet about whether the running time is too long, too short or maybe just right. The trend is undoubtedly towards increasingly longer films: “Avatar 2: The Way Of Water” became a mega hit despite (or because of?) a running time of three hours and twelve minutes. The 170 minutes (!) long “John Wick 4” has just started very successfully and “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3” should be the longest part of the series. Now known: Also Christopher Nolan’s new movie “Oppenheimer‘ gets long – the longest movie of his career!
At least that is what the usually very well-informed former Hollywood Reporter journalist and former Hollywood lawyer Matthew Belloni reports in his Puck newsletter.“. Accordingly, “Oppenheimer” should be about three hours long, always assuming that no major or minor changes are made at the last minute. It will be a while before ‘Oppenheimer’ hits theaters on July 20, 2023.
Although Christopher Nolan has not been particularly known for his short films in recent years, ‘Oppenheimer’ is by far the longest film in his filmography at (approximately) three hours or 180 minutes – ahead of ‘Interstellar’ (169 minutes) and ‘The Dark Knight Rises ” (164 minutes). Here are all the Nolan-directed feature films released to date, sorted by running time (all times rounded):
- “Interstellar” (169 minutes)
- “The Dark Knight Rises” (164 minutes)
- “The Dark Knight” (152 minutes)
- “Tenet” (150 minutes)
- “Commencement” (148 minutes)
- Batman Begins (140 minutes)
- “Prestige” (130 minutes)
- “Insomnia” (118 minutes)
- “Memento” (113 minutes)
- “Dunkirk” (107 minutes)
- “Next” (69 minutes)
Interesting side note: Although “Dunkirk” and “Oppenheimer” are set in the same era (namely around WWII), the two titles are on opposite ends of the runtime rankings. Besides his debut indie film…
The focus of “Oppenheimer” is the physicist Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), who in 1942 takes over the leadership of the so-called Manhattan Project, ie the development and construction of the first atomic bomb. As usual with Nolan, little information is known about the content, but what we can expect is more of a biographical film about Oppenheimer’s life and work and the doubts about his work than one of the complicated action blockbusters Nolan is known for.