Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny longer than expected

With the Cannes Film Festival only days away from beginning, the official running time for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has been revealed. According to the official film guide, the movie runs 154 minutes, which is twelve minutes longer than the original running time teased by Kathleen Kennedy, who originally said, “It’s around two hours and 22-23 minutes. Because runtime seems to be a hot topic, I will say the early movies were shorter…and we talked about that quite a bit…But as you know, with runtime, it’s all about how you feel, right?” Of course, she may well have been referring to the movie as it ran without credits.

Not including the upcoming fifth entry, only half of the Indians Jones movies exceeded two hours, with 1989’s The Last Crusade the lengthiest at 128 minutes. So, really, Dial of Destiny is only looking to have a runtime around 15 minutes or so longer. (It’s also possible that the end credits will be the longest of the lot, considering the special effects work that went into digitally de-aging Harrison Ford.)

Defending the runtime of Dial of Destiny, Kennedy insisted, “We’re not dealing with a long movie,” which may be the first thing that pops into moviegoers’ heads. At the same time, a case could be made that pop culture fans are getting used to being in front of the screen for stretches. “The reason this is interesting is because longform storytelling is becoming something that we like in the streaming space. I think it might be that it’s some kind of carryover from that.”

There are certainly numbers to defend the producer’s claim. Last year, most of the highest-grossing movies worldwide had lengthy runtimes: Top Gun: Maverick hit 130 minutes, Jurassic World Dominion nipped at 2:30 and Avatar: The Way of Water surpassed three hours, a trend also seen in the highest-grossing movies ever, as the first Avatar, Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame and Titanic all near or go over three hours. At a runtime of over 2:20, could Dial of Destiny be one of the box office champs of 2023?

How do you feel about the runtime ofIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? Do you think142 minutes is too long on paper? Let us know your take!