The theatrical cut of David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) runs 158 minutes. This neo-noir mystery thriller adapts Stieg Larsson’s 2005 Swedish novel and follows journalist Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander as they investigate a decades-old disappearance.
The film was directed by Fincher from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian, with Daniel Craig playing Blomkvist and Rooney Mara portraying Salander. Its deliberately extended runtime allows the investigation, family history, violence, and character development to unfold at a measured pace rather than reducing the story to a conventional thriller.
A common mix-up comes from rounded descriptions: some contemporary reviews refer to the movie as approximately 160 minutes. That figure is a casual rounding, not the listed theatrical runtime. The 158-minute figure identifies the standard theatrical release, while alternate edits, international listings, or home-video presentations can sometimes create slightly different numbers. Fincher’s film was released in 2011 and was intended as the first part of a planned series, although the projected sequels were not produced.