Edena,
I signed the petition, but I have to join the chorus of people here saying that it would probably be a financially bad idea to have a 4-hour run time for the movie. For home viewing, that’s great, but not for the theaters. The people talking about showing times and the film not fitting on platters are absolutely correct (I did a 2 year stint as a manager overseeing three multiplexes). Movies that are over 2 1/2 hours in length are just a pain. Especially if they are popular.
The only way to handle it would be to show it on multiple screens for the majority of its run. That is something you generally don’t want to do.
A four-hour movie I can only realistically show 3 times a day. Now make the movie 3 hours long, I can show it 4 times a day and sell more popcorn (because, in the States at least, it is all about the popcorn). Sure, I would probably run it on multiple screens for the first week, maybe two, but even if I am selling out every show, I will be forced to make screen space (or due to contracts, I will want to but can’t). It’s the holidays after all; big movie release time and screen space is at a premium (at least it was when I was doing it).
Now, if you run a 16+ screen megaplex, maybe you can get away with it. However, smaller plexs are not going to be very profitable showing it only 3, maybe 6 times a day (on two screens). After the initial hype dies down, you will be really showing it only 2 or 4 times a day, because the number of people who are going to sit in a theater until 2:00 am is going drop off pretty darn fast.
For better or for worse (and I can make strong arguments for both points of view) the movie industry is much different than when most of the movies that are listed on your petition site came out. If Peter Jackson can tell the story in four hours, then he can probably tell it in three, he could certainly tell it in three and a half. Both of those options are better than four hours, from an exhibiter’s point of view, and their opinion does count for a lot.