With Superman Returns, there’s been a lot of speculation about size: How massive is the budget? (“Well south of $200 million,” director Bryan Singer says). How broad is the character’s “gay appeal”? Um, how big is Brandon Routh’s codpiece?

And now, how long is the movie’s running time?

CanMag says Superman Returns will clock in at 153 minutes, including credits. That’s two hours and 33 minutes. But wait, there’s more.

“How long will you be sitting in the theatre exactly?,” the website asks. “Assuming you will be sitting in the theatre at least half an hour early, have twelve minutes of trailers and a running time of 153 minutes with credits, that means your ass will be on a theatre seat for about 195 minutes! For the lay person, that is a whopping three hours and fifteen minutes. … Holy crap!”

In comparison, X-Men: The Last Stand had a runtime of 104 minutes, while Spider-Man 2 came a little closer, at 127 minutes. Last year’s Batman Begins ran for 141 minutes.

According to IMDB, Superman: The Movie was 143 minutes. In that light, 153 minutes doesn’t seem that bad.

Speaking of size, and Brandon Routh, Hollywood.com reports the actor spent so many hours in the gym that he almost burst out of his blue tights. No, that’s not another codpiece reference:

… The 26-year-old’s newly bulging muscles infuriated costume designers, who were constantly forced to patch up his skin-tight blue and red suit as it tore against the strain of his biceps.

He recalls, “While I was doing a lot of weightlifting to get fit for the role, I was starting to get really muscled. That made the suit a lot tighter and a few times I would burst the seams.

“So I just eased off the workouts but I was pretty proud of getting myself in good shape because when I first tested the suit I didn’t have the kind of build I wanted.”

This final figure is a little depressing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Profile America,” when Superman first appeared in 1938, the average American spent $514 a year on newspapers and magazines. Today, that number is $100. Sigh.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 9:31 am and is filed under DC Comics, Movies, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.