Blade Runner 2049 is nearly three hours long

Blade Runner 2049 is one of the most anticipated movies of the fall season. It's going to bring us back to the world that redefined sci-fi and movies, this time nearly 30 years later. The new movie will follow Ryan Gosling's character Officer K must track down a fellow Blade Runner, Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard, after discovering an earth shattering secret. Deckard has been missing for 30 years and K must find him even if Deckard doesn't want to be found.

Of course, there's going to be a lot going on in the long awaited sequel so it's going to take some time to unpack things. On top of being one of the most expensive R-rated movies ever produced, it'll also be one of the longest. Blade Runner 2049's runtime is currently clocking in at a whopping 163 minutes, about 2 hours and 43 minutes.

While we don't know the runtime of movies like Justice League or Star Wars: The Last Jedi quite yet, it's likely Blade Runner 2049 will be one of, if not the longest movie of 2017. While this is good for those who have waited most of their lives for a sequel and want to savor it, it could also potentially damage the movie for a multitude of reasons.

Given the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day, a movie can only take up so much theater space and be shown so many times in one day. The longer it is, the less it can be shown meaning the less money it'll make in the long run. We also have to realize that the movie is R-rated meaning anyone under the age of 17 can't get in without a parent (unless they buy a ticket to another movie which still damages Blade Runner).

There have been PG-13 movies that have made bank at the box office despite a lengthy runtime. The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises were 2 and a half hours and 2 hours and 45 minutes respectively and still dominated the box office, other Christopher Nolan movies have also performed well despite their length. Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese also produced very lengthy R-rated flicks, some longer than Blade Runner 2049, and found great success.

We'll just have to see when Blade Runner 2049 hits theaters on October 6th, 2017.

[Slashfilm]