The Marvels is set to land in theaters on Nov. 10, bringing together three of the MCU’s most powerful women for an intergalactic adventure courtesy of Candyman director Nia DaCosta. Audiences will already be familiar with Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, though if you haven’t been keeping up with Marvel Studios’ Disney Plus output you may be less familiar with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan.
Both those new characters will need to be introduced to audiences, a fresh galactic threat will have to be established and defeated, and we need room for some barnstorming superpowered outer space action. So, how many minutes does The Marvels have to tell this expansive story?
The Marvels runtime
Sadly, right now this is a trickier question than it should be.
There are several conflicting sources on the film’s length. On the lower end, the generally reliable @Cryptic4KQual said in late August that it’s “currently” 98 minutes (93 minutes without credits). This would make it by far the shortest MCU movie to date and, while a 90-minute movie can be great, will raise some questions about what’s been left on the cutting room floor and what might have gone wrong behind the scenes.
On the other end of the spectrum, Odeon UK lists The Marvels as having a run-time of 140 minutes, which is much more in line with MCU sequel expectations. Then again, AMC Theaters lists a completely different runtime of 105 minutes, and Cineworld UK lists it as a flat 120 minutes.
Incidentally, The Marvels has been rated by the MPAA as PG-13 and in Italy as VM14, though neither board lists a runtime on their certificates.
So, the answer is currently unclear, but most sources indicate it’s going to be one of the shorter MCU movies. Its nearest contenders would be 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, each of which came in at 112 minutes, so it’d be shocking if The Marvels was around 20 minutes shorter than them.
Our best estimate
We’re more inclined to lean towards AMC’s listed runtime of 105 minutes. Theater chains will need to know how long the movie is in order to schedule screenings, and this seems to be the most recently updated page of all the major chains.
We should know for sure soon enough. The Marvels has likely already been submitted to the United Kingdom’s BBFC for rating, whose certificate always includes an exact runtime. Until then, we’ll keep an ear to the ground and update this article accordingly.
The Marvels arrives in theaters on Nov. 10 2023.