If you plan on seeing “The Batman” in theaters this March, you may want to skip the soda. The Robert Pattinson-led reboot has an official runtime of 176 minutes with credits, two insiders with knowledge confirm to TheWrap. That’s 2 hours and 56 minutes spent with Pattinson’s Caped Crusader (and 2 hours and 47 minutes without credits).
The runtime makes “The Batman” the longest standalone Batman film ever made, besting the 165-minute runtime of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy-capper “The Dark Knight Rises.” Indeed, it even stands as one of the longest superhero movies ever made, bested by the epic runtimes of “Avengers: Endgame” at 181 minutes and the HBO Max exclusive “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” which runs 242 minutes but is divided into chapters. It’s also longer than the theatrical cut of “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” although not quite as long as Snyder’s 182-minute director’s cut.
Matt Reeves directed and co-wrote “The Batman,” which he has teased as leaning into the “world’s greatest detective” aspect of the titular character. The film also eschews Batman’s origin story in favor of picking up a few years after he first donned the cape and cowl, making the running time even more impressive.
Reeves has referred to his take on the Caped Crusader as a slow-burn thriller, with a story that finds Paul Dano’s The Riddler murdering members of high society in Gotham and leaving Batman and Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) trying to piece together the clues of what ties them all together.
The film comes on the heels of Warner Bros.’ aborted attempt at building out a new Batman franchise with Ben Affleck, as the actor was originally supposed to star in and direct his own spinoff after “Justice League” before ultimately bowing out. He’ll make an appearance in the upcoming “The Flash” movie, but Reeves’ film is not set in the interconnected DC Universe, so “The Batman” is very much a fresh start.
To that end, the film introduces Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Farrell as Penguin, John Turturro as Carmine Falcone and Peter Sarsgaard as Gil Colson. Farrell is due to reprise his role in his own HBO Max spinoff series, while Wright is also returning in an HBO Max series focused on the Gotham P.D.
“The Batman” will be released exclusively in theaters on March 4.
