Lee Cronin's The Mummy will run 2 hours and 13 minutes, making it the longest film in the monster series and pushing the franchise past a record that stood for 25 years. The new film is scheduled to open in theaters on April 17, 2026, and it will also be the first entry in the series to carry an R-rating.
That runtime breaks the old mark set by The Mummy Returns, which ran 2 hours and 9 minutes. It is a notable shift for a franchise that began in 1932 and whose classic and Hammer-era installments never stretched beyond 94 minutes. Warner Bros. is distributing Lee Cronin's film.
The size of the new entry matters because the series has always moved with a different identity depending on the era. Stephen Sommers' three Mummy films, released by Universal Pictures, all starred Brendan Fraser and were rated PG-13. Cronin's version does not include Fraser, and it is being positioned apart from that run even as it uses the same title and creature mythology.
Read Also: Brendan Fraser Mummy Sequel Set for 2028 Return With Original Stars
There is also a separate commercial reality hanging over the property. The last film based on the concept was the 2017 action movie starring Tom Cruise, which took in $409 million against a $125 million to $195 million budget but still underperformed enough to end Universal Pictures' plans for a shared Dark Universe. Universal has since confirmed development of The Mummy 4, a different film that is scheduled for May 19, 2028 and is expected to start filming in August of this year.
That leaves the brand split between two tracks: Cronin's standalone release in 2026 and Universal's return to the Fraser-Weisz line in 2028. The question now is not whether The Mummy is coming back. It is which version of the franchise audience members will treat as the real revival when both arrive only two years apart.
