Big-budget movies seem to keep getting longer and longer--after Avengers: Endgame proved once and for all that a lengthy running time isn't a real impediment to box office success, why not? But Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire comes in at a sleek 115 minutes, just under two hours long--and director Adam Wingard says that's just how he likes it.
"My preference is, I don't really love watching super long movies. Like, Dune 2 really worked, and there's certain movies that should be over two hours. But for me, it was really by choice. It wasn't like we ran out of stuff to do or we're rushing things. It's just kind of the movie that we made," Wingard told me at a Godzilla x Kong press event earlier this month. He also pointed out that Godzilla x Kong is actually his longest movie, being two minutes longer than Godzilla vs Kong, which he also shepherded. Prior to joining the MonsterVerse, Wingard was making horror flicks that would usually last between 90 and 100 minutes. So his tendency has always been toward shorter running times.
The young giant ape Suko in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
"It felt like when we were making it, in my mind the sweet spot was around two hours," he explained. "So even the rough cut of the movie was never over 2:10, it might have been, like, 2:08. And I already worked with this editor on Godzilla vs Kong, and so whenever we were working together, we always try to aim within 20 minutes of the final run time. So I never wanted a version that was three hours. It was a natural thing. I know that's not a great answer, but it wasn't like there's a mandate [from Warner Bros], like, you have to do a movie under this time."
