Movies

The Rise of Skywalker Is Officially the Longest Star Wars Movie Ever


The Skywalker saga is coming to an end. Fortunately, fans are going to get one last, long ride with these beloved characters before that happens. The runtime for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has finally, officially been revealed and it’s going to be the longest movie in the history of the franchise. Not by much, mind you, but it’s still going to be the longest single dose of Star Wars we’ve ever been given.

Pre-sale tickets for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker recently were made available, coinciding with the release of the final trailer. With that, several theater chains were able to list the movie’s official running time on their websites, as they need to know how long it is so that they can properly plan out screenings on opening weekend. Per these listings, Episode IX will clock in at 2 hours and 35 minutes, or 155 minutes, for those who prefer that metric. For the sake of comparison, the previous longest movie in the series was The Last Jedi, which clocks in at 2 hours and 32 minutes. So we’re operating in a similar ballpark, timewise.

Also, for what it may be worth, the shortest entry in the history of the franchise is the movie that started it all, 1977’s Star Wars (later subtitled with A New Hope), which clocks in at 2 hours and 1 minute. Director J.J. Abrams previously helmed The Force Awakens, which sits roughly in the middle of the pack at 2 hours and 15 minutes. Abrams was brought back in to finish what he started by Lucasfilm, following the departure of Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who had previously been hired to direct the final installment of this sequel trilogy.

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That long runtime is more than likely needed and firmly justified. Not only does Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker have to finish up this trilogy, but since it’s being billed as the final entry in the Skywalker saga, it needs to successfully wrap up more than four full decades of storytelling. That’s no easy task. Whether or not J.J. Abrams will manage to do so in a successful way remains to be seen, but he’s got plenty of questions to answer and he’ll surely need every second of that running time to make it happen.

As we saw with Avengers: Endgame earlier this year, a lengthy runtime isn’t nearly enough to scare off moviegoers. To that point, pre-sales for Episode IX are already breaking records, which puts it on pace for a massive opening weekend at the box office later this year. The real X-factor here could be critical response and word of mouth from audiences. If the word is good, the movie’s prospects will only improve. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set to hit theaters on December 20. This information comes to us via AMC Theatres.



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