For those keeping track of this sort of thing, the stats are in and it looks like the new Star Trek movie will be the second-longest entry in the franchise to date. Film classification boards in British Columbia and the United Kingdom have both indicated that the film’s running time is 127 minutes — or, to be more precise, 126 minutes and 39 seconds.
Only the first movie in the franchise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), was longer, ranging anywhere from 132 to 143 minutes depending on whether you saw it in a theatre, on TV, or on DVD. And none of the other movies have ever crossed the two-hour line — not even after a couple of them were expanded for home video:
- 1979 — Star Trek: The Motion Picture — 132 minutes in theatres, 143 minutes on TV, 136 minutes on DVD
- 1982 — Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan — 113 minutes in theatres, 116 minutes on DVD
- 1984 — Star Trek III: The Search for Spock — 105 minutes
- 1986 — Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home — 118 minutes
- 1989 — Star Trek V: The Final Frontier — 106 minutes
- 1991 — Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country — 109 minutes in theatres, 113 minutes on DVD
- 1994 — Star Trek: Generations — 117 minutes
- 1996 — Star Trek: First Contact — 111 minutes
- 1998 — Star Trek: Insurrection — 103 minutes
- 2002 — Star Trek: Nemesis — 116 minutes
- 2009 — Star Trek — 127 minutes
Star Trek is also about the same length as J.J. Abrams’ last movie, Mission: Impossible III (2006) — which, like Star Trek, was based on a Desilu-produced 1960s TV show that co-starred Leonard Nimoy. Hmmmm.
Anyway, back in October, Abrams promised Star Trek would be only two hours long because he’s not a fan of the recent trend towards epic-length action movies — and if we forgive him those extra six-and-a-half minutes, which could very easily be accounted for by the end credits, then it would seem he has kept his word.
In other news, Star Trek has become the third film in the series to be rated PG-13 in the United States, following First Contact and Nemesis; all of the other films were rated PG, with the partial exception of The Motion Picture, which was rated G in 1979 but was re-rated PG when the “director’s edition” came out on DVD in 2001.
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