Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s runtime has now been revealed, with the film setting a new record for the franchise. Following the success of 1996’s originalMission: Impossible, Tom Cruise has returned as superspy Ethan Hunt for six subsequent adventures, the most recent of which, subtitledDead Reckoning, was released in 2023. Now, Cruise is set to reteam with director Christopher McQuarrie to potentially bid farewell to the franchise, with theMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningstoryset to feature Hunt attempting to take down the Entity, an AI threat, once and for all.
A new listing forThe Final Reckoningon theAMC Theaterswebsite now reveals thatMission: Impossible 8will be two hours and 49 minutes with credits. As seen in the chart below, this makes it the longest movie in the franchise’s history.
1h 50m
2h 3m
2h 6m
2h 13m
2h 11m
2h 28m
2h 43m
2h 49m
What This Means For The Final Reckoning
Will The Runtime Hurt Or Help The Mission: Impossible Movie?
So far, there has been no official confirmation that the upcomingMission: Impossiblemoviewill be the last one, but the title and the sense of finality in the trailer suggest it could be. The elongated runtime further speaks to just how epic Hunt’s upcoming adventure will be, andit’s possible that the movie is especially long because it will also be serving as a franchise farewell. A lot could depend on box office, however, and it seems likely that the door will be left open for another installment shouldThe Final Reckoningbe a hit.
Runtime can have an impact on box office. In addition to some audiences just not wanting to sit that long for a movie, longer runtimes also limit how many times a day a movie can screen in theaters. As proven by the top three highest-grossing movies of all time, though –Avatar(2h 42m),Avengers: Endgame(3h 1m) andAvatar: The Way of Water(3h 12m) –audiences are still very willing to show up to show up en masse for the right titles, even when they’re well over two-and-a-half hours.
Our Take On Mission: Impossible 8’s Runtime
Why The Final Reckoning Probably Won’t Feel Too Long
Though getting up close to the three-hour mark can sometimes be dicey, a well-paced long movie is almost always easier to watch than a poorly-paced short one. If theMission: Impossiblefranchise has demonstrated anything with its most recent installments, it’s thatMcQuarrie and Cruise know how to keep audiences on the edges of their seats.Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoningreviewswere glowing from critics and audiences, after all, and that movie wasn’t far off fromThe Final Reckoning’s runtime.
From what has been revealed in trailers and hyped by the director and cast,The Final Reckoningfeatures the franchise’s biggest and most ambitious action sequences ever. It’s very likely that one reason for the longer runtime is that there is just more action and more stunts. It remains to be seen whetherMission: Impossible – The Final Reckoningearns its runtime, but the film is definitely shaping up to be an epic theater experience.
