Avengers: Endgame officially a three-hour bladder-buster, so make a plan

"I can do it all day," says famed Captain America (Chris Evans) in several Marvel films, usually when he's beaten to pieces.

But can Marvel fans sit around watching him all day, with no intermission or break in the bathroom? It's a different question.

The Marvel ensemble films slowly but surely lengthen and Avengers: End of the game, which will be released in theaters April 26, the rumor says that it takes months for three months. Today, the race leader: 3 hours and 58 seconds, according to CNET's sister site, Comicook.com, who spoke with director Joe Russo at the annual CinemaCon event in Las Vegas.

According to previous reports, the film would last a little longer, three hours and two minutes, to be exact, after an execution posted by the AMC cinemas on March 25 then deleted later. "We have just accelerated the credits, which is what we did," said Joe Russo at ComicBook.com.

The duration does not seem to bother Marvel fans who had the chance to take a look. But apparently, nobody needed to escape for a little pee.

"We have watched the film four times now," Russo's other brother, Anthony, told Collider in February. "For the first three screenings, not one person got up to go to the bathroom."

In an interview with Collider published in early March, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige made it clear that the film would get the "right moment".

"We do not consider execution times in terms of warrants or anything like that," Feige said. "Each film should look like one hour and 45 minutes, now some films can last 90 minutes and feel like four hours, some films can last three and a half hours and give the impression of 90 minutes … version of Endgame so far, and the ones we're working on feel great. "

Bathroom App

Nevertheless, a three hour film is a first for Marvel and may require an organic break, even for those who absolutely hate the idea of ​​missing any dialogue. Dan Gardner, co-creator of RunPee, a mobile app that recommends the best times to get up and respond to nature's calls during a movie, is far less well known than others.

Gardner used RunPee data to compare the lengths of all MCU films since the first movie in the Iron Man series, Phase 1, 2008. (The two-hour, six-minute duration of this film seems as picturesque as the dating abilities. of Cape compared to the three-hour time of Endgame.)

"The trend is clearly to longer films (MCU), but it's an inevitable consequence of stories involving more and more characters," Gardner said. "The first Avengers movie was considerably longer than one of the first five MCU films because it involved the interaction of all the characters and the formation of a team."

The shortest film of all MCU is The Incredible Hulk (2008), with 112 minutes. Thor, from 2011, is only 114 minutes. Strange doctor, from 2016, lasts 115 minutes. And Ant-Man 2015 lasted 117 minutes.

See the reason? These films were all centered on one main character rather than having to associate several heroes and their stories. But they too seem to lengthen: Captain Marvel, the last solo film of MCU, lasts 132 minutes.

Avengers: Endgame will be the longest MCU movie if the Russos keep it at 180 minutes. The next longer is the 2018 movie that sets up Endgame, Avengers: war in the infinite, coming to 149 minutes. Captain America: Civil War, from 2016, arrives at 147 minutes, with The Avengers of 2012 at 142 minutes and 2015 Avengers: the era of Ultron at 141 minutes.

"If you divide the game autonomously or together, the average run time of a stand-alone user is 123 minutes and that of the sets, 139 minutes – not counting Endgame," says Gardner. If Endgame lasts exactly three hours, the average duration of Marvel's overall films is 144 minutes.

Running times are not really surprising, says Robert K. Elder, who calls himself a "convalescent" film critic and has written 11 books, including "The Movie That Changed My Life" and "The Best Film" that you have never seen ".

"When you have so many characters – including a space pirate raccoon and a Nordic god – that kind of length is inevitable," Elder said. "Marvel is doing something new by creating a coherent cinematic universe, which means that there are many arcs of characters and bits to connect."

Wait for battle accumulation scenes

If you need to take a short break, whether it's a break in the washroom or a concession load, Gardner offers you some advice.

"In action movies, there is usually a scene or two preceding the final battle, where the action slows down a bit and gives the audience an opportunity to relax a little bit," he said. Gardner. "A good example is that of Zero Dark Thirty, where a very long chopper scene unfolded as the team headed to Osama Bin Laden's compound."

How do you know when the battle scene is looming? Gardner notes that RunPee will have Avengers: Endgame "peetimes" without spoiler added to the app as early as the opening night of the movie.

Of course, the simplest tips are obvious, especially if you do not like to miss anything. Resist the allure of this Icee the size of a gallon. Or at least sit in the driveway for a quick exit if necessary.

"I'm a seasoned spectator, so I always have a game plan," says Elder. "I eat in advance and I make sure my bladder is empty, lock and load."

But the fact that Avengers: Endgame promises to test the ability of fans to stay in place does not mean that the movies as a whole tend to be longer.

"Long movies are expensive, so they are relatively rare," said Elder. "The heyday of this era was the early 1960s. It is therefore misleading to think that movies (today) are longer."

These rumors of intermission

Some of these long classic films of the 1960s were interspersed. During a cinematic pause, the action of the movie stops, usually with a still image announcing the frozen pause on the screen. The first film technologies required an intermission so that the projectionists could change their reels.

On February 5, screenwriter Alan Cerny, co-host of the Matinee Heroes podcast, suggested in a tweet that Marvel might consider an intermission in Avengers: Endgame. Cerny later said the report was based on "fan discussions and speculation (online)," and he doubted that would happen. But in response, many Fans emphasized that intermissions are the norm in films shown in India.

Gardner of RunPee is not a fan of intermissions.

"I think that an intermission is quite disturbing for the experience," he said. "The break should last at least 15 minutes to be useful, I think it just creates a mess."

Even though the data shows that Marvel's overall films slowly lengthen, Elder envisions a possible three-hour Avengers: Endgame as a one-time necessity, not a trend.

"Marvel movies will become popcorn experiences of 120 minutes or less," says Elder. "(Avengers: Endgame) is the Lawrence of Saudi comics movies."

But he thinks that if Marvel builds it, moviegoers will come.

"If Kevin Feige and the Russo brothers say they need three hours, they have accumulated a lot of goodwill (and) the public will follow them," says Elder.

So, be like Captain America and plan to stay in for a while.

Originally published on March 6th.
Update of March 14: Add a link to a new trailer
Update of March 25th: Adds the deleted runtime by AMC.
Update of April 4th: Adds Joe Russo's confirmation of the run.