What Does Captain Marvel 2's Short Running Time Suggest About the Film?

It is at this point a common observation that movies have been getting longer and longer over the years. Discussing the trend I have tended to think of it as a matter of the studios having a harder time getting people to the theater and responding by trying to make their movie seem like an event somehow, and cramming in more spectacle, both of which conduce to those longer movies. Still, however one explains it the fact of those longer running times remains, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) no exception to the trend. Where the MCU's Phase One films averaged 124 minutes, the Phase Four films averaged 139 minutes--a fifteen minute expansion over the course of the decade between them (when, by the standard of 1985, even the Phase One movies were long for action films).

The reports indicating that Captain Marvel 2 will run a mere 105 minutes--versus the 139 minute norm for Phase Four of the MCU, the 133 minute norm for the saga overall, and even the 123 minute length of the first Captain Marvel, can thus seem a bit of a surprise. My guess is that this partly reflects the movie's tighter focus (the really long movies, like the Avengers films or The Eternals, tended to deal with bigger groups of superheroes), and lighter, more humorous tone, which brevity better befits (Ant-Man movies tending to be briefer than, for instance, Black Panther movies).

Still, that a movie that is a very big-budgeted superhero sequel is so much shorter than its predecessor may suggest something else going on, especially in light of the word about reshoots and delays--that dissatisfaction with what was filmed led to some brutal cuts, and a much shorter film than was originally intended. For an extreme case of the kind of thing I have in mind, consider that other superhero film, 2010's Jonah Hex, which clocked in at a mere 81 minutes. (Worldwide gross--$11 million, while so far as I know this one did not redeem itself in home entertainment.)

Of course, it will not be much more than two weeks before the audience gets to see the film for itself (while for what it is worth even the most pessimistic assessment still anticipates the movie doing a lot better than Jonah Hex gross-wise).