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Blade Runner 2049 is going to be a long movie - rumor

Eric Frederiksen

We were surprised earlier this summer when Dunkirk released with a surprisingly short runtime of just 107 minutes. For a big war movie, that’s not just lean, it’s almost starved. Now we’re hearing that the upcoming Blade Runner 2049 is going to slam the runtime needle down at the other end of the scale.

According to information leaked out of Sony Russia, shown above, the sequel is going to clock in at a rather substantial 163 minutes. It should be noted that this is not officially confirmed information – it’s a rumor at this point. Even with the knowledge that movies are getting longer, it’s still a long runtime for a Hollywood movie, and it’s quite a bit longer than many of the other movies directed by Denis Villenueve. For comparison, it’s 45 minutes longer than even the longest cut of the original Blade Runner, which is a tie between the 1982 international theatrical release and the 2007 “Final” cut put together by director Ridley Scott at 117 minutes.

Villenueve himself said last month that the then-current cut of the movie was clocking in at 150 minutes. It’s possible the cut has changed a little since then, though Collider‘s Steve Weintraub said on Twitter that the “official” runtime is 152 minutes. While Weintraub calls that official, we still don’t have confirmation from any official source. Regardless, this is going to be a long movie.

That’s a lot of androids

For movie theaters showing the movie, that means fewer opportunities to sell tickets and food. For us that means more time basking in the glorious glow of direction from Villenueve and cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has acted as Director of Photography on movies like The Shawshank Redemption, A Beautiful Mind, and Villeneuve’s own Sicario. There’s no way I’m going to complain about that.

But if you’re planing to see Blade Runner 2049 when it hits this fall, you might want to visit the restroom ahead of time. And skip the 64-oz “medium” soda at the concessions counter.

Blade Runner 2049 hits on October 6, 2017.