The MCU’s 17 Year History Proves Marvel Needs Longer Movies, Not Shorter Ones

After 17 years, the MCU has confirmed that its sprawling cosmic tales are higher served by longer moderately than shorter motion pictures. After Avengers: Endgame clocked in over three hours in theaters, the subject of the MCU’s runtimes grew to become a bone of competition amongst cinema goers. Avid followers like myself are more than pleased to take a seat by way of three hours of high-octane and heart-rending swashbuckling narratives so long as they boast a sure degree of high quality. Then again, it’s simple to see why extra informal followers of the franchise may be perturbed by unprecedented run occasions.

Marvel then flipped the script in 2024 by releasing the shortest MCU movie to this point with The Marvels. Sadly for the studio (and followers who noticed this as a turning level for the franchise), this film grew to become the MCU’s biggest flop. Whereas there are a number of reasons The Marvels failed, I do assume this distinctive function of the film speaks to a bigger consideration for Marvel to mull over in terms of reducing motion pictures down, and previous expertise ought to give rise to an epiphany forward of big upcoming tasks.

Most Of The MCU’s Most Common Motion pictures Are Longer

Each Avengers Film Is In The High Ten

The best movies in the MCU boast many related qualities, however one of many extra shocking is their longer run occasions. Avengers: Endgame, for example, is the longest film within the MCU and the style as a complete, the four-hour but unreleased Zack Snyder’s Justice League however. Additionally it is the MCU’s highest-grossing movie, bagging $2.7 billion for Marvel Studios, and considered one of its highest-rated. The correlation between recognition and size extends past this one instance, nonetheless.

MCU Motion pictures With The Longest Run Instances
Film	Run Time	Worldwide Field Workplace (by way of TheNumbers)
Avengers: Endgame	3 hours 1 minute	$2.7 billion
Black Panther: Wakanda Perpetually	2 hours 41 minutes	$860 million
Eternals	2 hours 36 minutes	$400 million
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3	2 hours 29 minutes	$850 million
Avengers: Infinity Conflict	2 hours 29 minutes	$2 billion
Spider-Man: No Method House	2 hours 28 minutes	$1.9 billion
Captain America: Civil Conflict	2 hours 27 minutes	$1.2 billion
The Avengers	2 hours 23 minutes	$1.5 billion
Avengers: Age of Ultron	2 hours 21 minutes	$1.4 billion
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	2 hours 17 minutes	$870 million

In reality, every of the MCU’s highest-grossing franchises has representatives on this checklist, together with the Avengers, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. The information exhibits that an prolonged interval sitting in a cinema seat just isn’t sufficient to show audiences off seeing a genuinely compelling MCU film, with worldwide followers desperate to witness the total story. This speaks to the notion that telling tales that span a number of comedian e-book points within the area of a single film deserves enough area to be informed.

Apparently, the alternative impact may be seen with the MCU’s three shortest motion pictures. So as of size, The Marvels, The Unimaginable Hulk, and Thor: The Darkish World weren’t the best-received MCU motion pictures, whereas the shortest two are the lowest-grossing MCU movies. This tracks with a few of the criticisms leveled at these motion pictures pointing in the direction of sure facets being lacking, equivalent to references to the broader MCU in The Unimaginable Hulk, or a failure to flesh out Asgard in Thor: The Darkish World.

Thor: The Darkish World grossed a decent $640 million on the worldwide field workplace.

Captain America: Courageous New World has added to this development. Clocking in at 1 hour 58 minutes, Captain America: Courageous New World is the MCU’s joint-seventh-shortest film alongside Ant-Man and the Wasp and has proved notably divisive. Critics weren’t precisely received over by the most recent MCU film, and its operating complete on the international field workplace (on the time of writing) is $392 million, making it at present the MCU’s fifth-lowest-grossing film. Nonetheless, longer run occasions do not make MCU motion pictures unassailable.

Of MCU’s Longest 10 Motion pictures, Just one Flopped

Eternals Was A Shaky Begin To A New Saga

There’s a obtrusive outlier within the checklist of Marvel Studios’ longest-running and broadly acclaimed motion pictures: 2021’s Eternals. In reality, Eternals marked a turning level for Marvel Studios’ Multiverse Saga as the brand new forged of characters did not encourage as a lot enthusiasm as beforehand lesser-known figures just like the Guardians of the Galaxy. Eternals is at present the MCU’s sixth-lowest-grossing film, and stays one of many worst-rated motion pictures within the MCU.

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Whereas I feel Eternals is criminally underrated, it exhibits how one of many principal criticisms of the film – the sheer variety of characters it tried to highlight – wasn’t rectified by an extended run time. In reality, its size might need helped to contribute to criticisms, as its makes an attempt to provide sufficient display screen time to every Everlasting and ship exposition on their millennia-spanning historical past felt like extra of a slog. With that being mentioned, Eternals was a very bold venture and an exception to an rising rule that MCU motion pictures typically want larger run occasions to thrive.

The MCU Wants Longer Motion pictures To Make Full Sense

Masking So Many Comics Wants Longer Run Instances

One of many key challenges for Marvel Studios is successfully speaking the lore and particulars of larger-than-life characters who boast many years of comedian e-book historical past within the area of only one film. It is a tremendous line to tread, however shortening run occasions to make their cinematic outings extra bite-size feels each pointless and unwise. The intelligent use of time jumps in Avengers: Endgame did not hamper the storytelling in any respect, and it nonetheless deserved each minute of its greater than three hours of storytelling to successfully carry the Infinity Saga to an in depth.

It is no marvel that every of the Avengers motion pictures to date boasts the longest run occasions.

Regardless of lacking the mark, Eternals took the fitting strategy early within the Multiverse Saga in its try and facilitate the breadth of its ensemble forged. It’s notably uncommon for an MCU film to highlight only one character nowadays, and The Marvels helped to show {that a} quick run time made it tough to care about new characters like Monica Rambeau when she was basically shoehorned into the combination with minimal character improvement in WandaVision. The identical may be mentioned for Kamala Khan in terms of MCU moviegoers who skip out on watching Disney+ exhibits.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Wonder Man in the MCU and Reed Richards' Mister Fantastic in Marvel Comics

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It is no marvel that every of the Avengers motion pictures to date boasts the longest run occasions. Not solely do they capably highlight every of their principal stars, however they take the time to safe the interconnectedness of the MCU inherent of their premises. The Multiverse Saga is struggling by failing to tie its composite elements collectively, and releasing a film with longer run occasions (as Spider-Man: No Method House demonstrated) is important to make sure it will possibly seize the breadth of the broader MCU narrative.

Avengers: Doomsday & Avengers: Secret Wars Deserve Longer Runtimes

They Have A Lot To Cowl

Because of this Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars want run occasions to rival their predecessors. As aforementioned, a scarcity of clear throughline as sometimes telegraphed by way of Avengers motion pictures has hampered the Multiverse Saga and put substantial strain on these two motion pictures to choose up the slack on the tail-end of the saga. The necessity to make Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars as lengthy and even longer than the Avengers motion pictures of the Infinity Saga is additional strengthened by the broader context.

To place it mildly, the MCU‘s Multiverse Saga is huge. A size nearing three hours feels obligatory if Marvel hopes to acceptably highlight the numerous, many characters it has launched because the Infinity Saga. Sadly, that is no imply feat, as Eternals helped to show {that a} longer run time is not all it takes to supply a well-liked film that options a big ensemble forged.