Marvel’s latest outing CAPTAIN MARVEL came out at the beginning of March and is still doing great at the box office, remaining in the top five and grossing over $400 million domestically so far, and well over $1 billion globally – and all on top of what could be another bump come ENDGAME’s release. That’s a lot of people going to see this movie starring Brie Larson, but none more than Wisconsin resident Steve Ruppel, who broke a Guinness World Record by seeing MARVEL 104 times in theaters, and as a way of further solidifying his claim to the throne went back another 12 times to bring up the total to 116.
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“I thought it was the most insane thing ever, I thought it was impossible,” Ruppel told WSAW (via IndieWire) about his time-consuming accomplishment. “I wasn’t even sure why it was even a record, but I thought after a while ‘I should probably do that.'”
At just over two hours, seeing CAPTAIN MARVEL in theaters that many times would take up just over 240 hours of Ruppel’s life which does, surprisingly, include a job. While he easily could’ve built a dummy of himself to prop up at his work à la FERRIS BUELLER, Ruppel spoke about simply taking time off work to meet his goals.
“The amount of time that it takes, I’ve had to take time off work, I would take long lunch breaks to accommodate watching an entire movie in that particular time frame,” said Ruppel. “And then just time on the weekends where I’m not doing other things.”
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Ruppel also said he saw the movie as many as seven times in one day, and in order to stop the experience from getting old after, say, the fifth time he began to pay more attention to the smaller details in the movie. That includes finding out what day the movie took place on, noticing a calendar set to June of 1995, and then after noticing the full moon during a night scene used Google to determine it took place on June 13th.
In proving his feat to Guinness he didn't have to just see the movie and send them a pic of the ticket stub. Ruppel said he had to get at least two eye-witness signatures confirming he was there, as well as send pictures of the stubs and of himself at the theater.
While you would think he’s probably a diehard fan of the character, Ruppel explained this movie just seemed like the perfect fit to break the record with. “I love superhero movies, and so this was a pretty good fit,” he said. “I knew it was going to be around for awhile, and I thought it would probably be a good choice for this particular record."
The movie is now gone from his local theater, and though he could travel to another to see it some more times, he will probably stop there. He will no doubt catch Captain Marvel again in AVENGERS: ENDGAME this week, but with a three-hour runtime, he will probably stick to only 55 viewings.