Fans have come to expect nothing short of epic runtimes from the MCU, but recently they have been left a little disappointed. That is a trend that will seemingly continue with Thor: Love and Thunder, which has been reported to come in at just under two hours on some listings sites where advance tickets are going on sale. While this is still a hefty length and once upon a time would have been seen as bum-numbingly long, the last few years of Marvel releases have been littered with movies up to three hours long, with many coming in around the 140-150 minute mark.
AMC and Cineworld prepared for advance ticket sales by updating their websites to show the runtime as 119 minutes, meaning this will be the shortest MCU for four years. In fact, it also means that Thor: Love and Thunder has one of the shortest run-times of the whole MCU saga, with only Ant-Man, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Doctor Strange, Thor: The Dark World and The Incredible Hulk coming in below it. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing for the movie.
While there is a tendency for movies to end up delivering extra-long runtimes, they often also fail to keep their pace for the whole length of the film. Thor: Love and Thunder could avoid that mistake by keeping its runtime down and not attempting to pad it out. Recently, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness went from a rumored 148 minutes down to around 124 minutes, and it is fair to say that the film landed just about right, with not much wasted time on screen. With Taiki Waititi promising a “bonkers” movie, there is no doubt that we are in for a fast and furious time with Thor.
Thor: Love and Thunder Could Be The Highest Grossing Movie of the Year
Marvel Studios
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently closing in on a $1 billion worldwide gross and is the highest-grossing movie of the year to date, however Top-Gun: Maverick is closing in fast and has already overtaken the Marvel sorcerer on the domestic front. However, Thor: Ragnarok was a big earner for Marvel Studios and with the whole team back on board for Thor: Love and Thunder, it would be more surprising if the latest addition to the MCU didn’t challenge the top of the year’s chart after its theatrical run.
Thor: Love and Thunder is also doing what so many of the biggest Marvel movies have done in the past in making it a collaborative affair. As well as the return of Jane Foster to Thor’s world, the film also involves the Guardians of the Galaxy as the story takes place in the wake of Avengers: Endgame. Similar to how Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner was a big part of Ragnarok, the inclusion of the Guardians continues the trend of combining heroes in order to broaden the scope and story of the MCU’s movies and ensure they don’t fall into the over-familiar trap that many solo superhero movies of the past have suffered from.
