In my books a film should never exceed 2 and 1/2 hours.
As I said that’s the perfect runtime for me too.
But in my books a film should also have structure, logic and continuity. And in this case I made the choice to sacrifice the runtime in order to achieve those goals.
So if for example Steve appears in the end of Film 1 with blood on his face, I can’t get rid of his stupid argument with Nancy because that’s where Jonathan comes and breaks his nose.