The Batman: Reported Run Time Reveals It Will Be the Longest Batman Movie Ever

As it turns out, fans of the Caped Crusader may be about to watch three straight hours of vengeance-seeking action. A new listing on the IMAX Melbourne website suggests the current runtime for Matt Reeves’ The Batman is 176 minutes, meaning fans will get two hours and 56 minutes of Robert Pattinson’s take on Bruce Wayne on the most popular mythos in all of comic book history.

Not only is the reported runtime one of the longest comic book films ever released, but it would also definitively be the longest Batman movie ever released. As it stands now, The Dark Knight Rises is currently the longest Batman movie at two hours and 45 minutes. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight clocks in at two hours and 32 minutes while Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice carries a similar runtime.

The extensive runtime makes sense, after all, as Reeves himself has said the movie is the world’s greatest detective story.

“I wanted to do a story in which the corruption of Gotham was one of the most important aspects of the story, because Gotham is a sick place. Bruce is desperate to try and make a change,” Reeves said in a recent interview with MovieMaker magazine.

He added,  “He’s still stuck, to be honest, emotionally stunted at being 10 years old, because that’s a trauma you don’t get past—witnessing your parents murder in this place. He’s looking to create meaning, right? This is the only meaning he can find. … I think he imagines that if he can do this, somehow he can reverse what’s happened, which will never be reversed. This is a very human impulse, right? To try and relive something and remake it.”

Reeves went on to say Batman is always at the center of all good Gotham stories, sniffing out the corruption wherever it may lead.

“The idea of a place that is corrupt, and you try to swim against the tide in order to fight against it and make a difference, is quintessential Batman,” Reeves said. “And at the center of those noir stories is almost always the detective, right? And that’s why he is the world’s greatest detective. And so, this story is, in addition to being almost a horror movie, a thriller, and an action movie, at its core, it’s also very much a detective story. It’s very narrative.”

The Batman is currently set to be released on March 4th.