No Time To Die’s runtime has been announced and, at a whopping 163 minutes, there is a good chance that the next James Bond outing’s length could be a major mistake for the franchise. The runtime of Hollywood blockbusters has been increasing for over a decade as studios scramble to make major movies into events, and the James Bond franchise has been affected by this phenomenon as much as any other series. The suave super-spy’s early screen adventures rarely had runtimes over two hours during the reign of Sean Connery and Roger Moore, but later 007 movies gradually increased this norm over the decades.
Now, the long-delayed No Time To Die’s runtime has been unveiled ahead of the movie’s November release, and it’s the longest Bond outing in the history of the series. At 163 minutes, No Time To Die beats Spectre, the previous longest Bond movie, by a margin of 15 minutes. However, bigger may not necessarily mean better for the franchise.
A runtime of 163 minutes makes No Time To Die a full 20 minutes longer than Skyfall, which was pretty much a perfect modern Bond movie and still managed to leave some reviewers checking their watch and complaining of a laggy third act. Skyfall told its own standalone story while connecting to Craig's arc as 007 and pushing forward the trajectory of his grounded, realistic reinvention of the character. Now that Craig is leaving the role behind, it would be no surprise to see the James Bond franchise keep the continuity established during his time in the role for the next actor playing the part. However, even with that lore taken into account, almost three hours is a tremendously long runtime for what should be a brisk adventure movie, making some worried that this outing will be too focused on fleshing out an elaborate backstory.
Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe began to dominate multiplexes, expansive blockbusters with immersive lore and endless easter eggs have been the order of the day for movie fans and this development has resulted in lengthier runtimes for tentpole movies. However, the recent trend of releasing movies via streaming and cinema simultaneously has seen some projects push back against these supersized runtimes. For example, Venom: Let There Be Carnage recently delighted many fans with the announcement that the movie would be only 90 minutes long. That said, even the earliest acclaimed Bond movies such as From Russia With Love boasted two-hour runtimes, meaning No Time To Die’s 163 minutes is hardly unprecedented.
Even so, nearly three hours of the super-spy’s antics could prove excessive and overlong, especially when Bond has been absent from theatres for so long. The increased runtime of No Time To Die does fit the trend established by its predecessors, with Casino Royale being almost as long as Spectre while Skyfall was almost as long as Craig’s 2006 Bond debut. However, even though ending Craig's era makes the lengthy runtime unsurprising, No Time To Die still runs the risk of annoying moviegoers with unnecessary narrative detours when the 007 adventure runs over two and a half hours long.
