John Wick 4 Will Be The Longest Movie In The Franchise (By A Country Mile)

One thing that success in Hollywood has taught directors is that the more money your films make, the more leeway you will get when it comes to fully realizing your intended vision for the big screen. In the past, that sort of clout has allowed directors to make their movies longer and has been exercised to its fullest extent by the likes of James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan, and with "John Wick: Chapter 4," it appears that director Chad Stahelski has joined that elite club.

Cameron, perhaps, takes the cake out of all those filmmakers listed above, with the runtime of his global blockbuster "Avatar: The Way of Water" coming in at a staggering 3 hours and 12 minutes. He likely faced little pushback from the studio, though, considering that prior to the film cracking the top five at the box office and earning $2.2 billion worldwide, he was already responsible for both the box office No. 1 movie, "Avatar" (2 hours and 42 minutes long) and the No. 3 movie, "Titanic" (3 hours and 14 minutes long) of all time.

As such, Cameron has come a long way since his 1981 directorial debut with the 1-hour-and-34-minutes-long "Piranha Part Two: The Spawning." And the length of the first "John Wick" movie compared to the latest is proving that Stahelski is no longer a small fish in a big pond, either.

Starring Keanu Reeves in the title role, "John Wick" was released in 2014: a former hitman comes guns a-blazing out of retirement after thugs steal his car and, worse yet, kill the puppy given to him by his late wife. Beginning as a member of an assassins guild governed by The High Table, Wick is branded "excommunicado" at the conclusion of "John Wick: Chapter 2" after killing a member of the guild on what's supposed to be the safe harbor grounds of the Continental Hotel. Wick remains on the run in "John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum," and he looks to settle some scores in "John Wick: Chapter 4."

Naturally, the stakes have grown higher with each "John Wick" film, and with that, so has the runtime of each chapter. The first "John Wick" film clocks in at 1 hour and 41 minutes, while its "Chapter 2" is 2 hours and 2 minutes. "Chapter 3," meanwhile, increases only slightly in runtime, at 2 hours and 10 minutes. But "John Wick: Chapter 4" will be substantially longer at 2 hours and 49 minutes. 

In an interview with Collider, director Chad Stahelski said he's watched the movie at least 200 times to make sure he's not going overboard with the runtime. "I know it's weird to say, but I watch it, and I was like, 'Oh, I'm still in the movie.' It doesn't take me out," Stahelski told the outlet. "I don't ever feel like, 'F***, just end this thing already. I can't watch it again.' You know what I mean?"

"John Wick: Chapter 4" is due in theaters on March 24.