Denis Villeneuve is no stranger to long runtimes for his films theatrical releases, with many averaging well over two and a half hours from start to finish. Not only does Dune Part 2 look to be no different, the director will also be setting a personal record with the film's long runtime.
It was confirmed on Wednesday that Dune Part 2's theatrical runtime would be clocking in at 165 minutes, or two hours and 45 minutes, making it ten minutes longer than 2021's Dune according to Digital Spy. The runtime also makes it Villeneuve's longest film to date, beating out 2017's Blade Runner 2049 which clocked in at 163 minutes, or two hours and 43 minutes.
The confirmation follows reports in December 2023 stating that the film's runtime was 166 minutes according to information from Japan's Film Classification and Rating Organization. This latest runtime came from the Irish Film Classification Office, though it isn't clear if there were any additional edits to the film or if localization could have affected the runtimes.
By comparison, the original David Lynch-directed Dune from 1984 clocked in at around 137 minutes, or two hours and 17 minutes, for its respective runtime. The shorter runtime appeared to work against at its release, though, as Lynch's Dune was met with widely negative reviews which criticized the movie, in part, for narrative critics felt was a mess and tried to do too much in too little time.
Villeneuve, however, decided to go the opposite route and split author Frank Herbert's sci-fi epic into two films to do the narrative justice. It paid off in the first film which covered roughly half of the book, while the second half will be the focus of Dune Part 2. Villeneuve has also expressed interest in directing a third Dune film based on Herbert's 1969 follow-up Dune Messiah.
Dune Part 2 is scheduled to release in theaters on March 1, 2024.
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