The runtime for “The Odyssey” has seemingly been revealed, and it looks like sitting through this epic will be a real odyssey in and of itself. Christopher Nolan has long been known for shooting as much in-camera as possible and preferring film over digital cameras. With “The Odyssey,” he’s taking things to the next level, shooting the entire thing on IMAX cameras and literally changing movie theaters in the process. What’s more, with an estimated budget of $250 million, the upcoming adaptation of Homer’s epic looks set to be the most expensive film Nolan has ever made. With that in mind, you might expect the celebrated auteur to go the whole hog and make his longest ever movie. But it appears as though “The Odyssey” will just miss out on taking that title.

As a keen Redditor noticed, the AMC Theaters website has listed “The Odyssey” runtime as 2 hours and 52 minutes. For now, Nolan’s longest feature remains the intense 2023 thriller disguised as a biopic “Oppenheimer,” which boasts a three-hour runtime. Aside from winning multiple Oscars, Nolan’s J. Robert Oppenheimer feature was also a major box office success, ensuring Nolan had about as much creative freedom as he likely wanted for “The Odyssey.”  Thus far that seems to have resulted in a bigger production in almost every way, although it looks like the director will go slightly easier on our increasingly fractured attention spans this time around.

Indeed, 2 hours and 52 minutes isn’t far off the three-hour mark, and while fans of the director will no doubt rejoice, others may not be so enthused. Up to this point, “The Odyssey” has come under fire for pretty much everything, and a lengthy runtime seems like yet another target for the trolls.

With his upcoming epic fantasy, Christopher Nolan looks to have not only outdone himself on a technical level but also in the sheer amount of controversy he’s managed to court before his film has even arrived. Mostly, though, the controversy over “The Odyssey” has been manufactured hot air, with commenters complaining about everything from its characters’ accents to the casting and even the filming locations. Now, with the movie seemingly clocking in at close to three hours long, you can bet it’s only a matter of time before the complaints about Nolan’s self-indulgent runtimes start pouring in.

Let’s hope I’m wrong about that. Regardless of whether you liked or were put off by the modern-day American accents in the “Odyssey” trailer, Nolan’s film looks set to be a true moviegoing experience that will almost certainly become a massive hit and help to buoy an industry in desperate need of help.

What’s more, you can’t really say that Nolan’s longer movies are any worse than his more abbreviated efforts. At 2 hours and 8 minutes, “Interstellar” is the third-longest Nolan film and happens to be his emotional masterpiece. What’s more, it should be said that if you’re going to adapt one of the great epics, you probably should allow yourself a capacious runtime to properly tell the story. We’ll see whether that runtime hurts the appeal of “The Odyssey” when the film finally debuts on July 17, 2026.