Tbf you don’t need to watch a 4.5 hour movie in one go either. Many films used to incorporate intermissions for this very purpose.
Maybe they could split it up into even more watchable bits, call them "episodes”. It could be like a series. Not like a whole series, maybe some sort of miniature series.
It’s OK to make a TV show, Ridley.
Why not make it two separate parts, released fairly close together, like a month apart? You’d build up hype and make people want to see the first one before part two comes out, then offer some double feature screenings alongside the normal release to encourage viewings of the second one. It would then also gain a surge in ticket sales as people finally went to see part onento get caught up.
Effectively it would mean a single film taking up twice as many screens and pulling in twice as many tickets.
All of that’s assuming it’s any good, of course. But I would think by this point with Ridley Scott that’s a decent bet.