Here's Johnny... Leaving Theater: Why Jack Nicholson Walked Out of LotR

And among the celebrities, probably the most candid in his distaste of the trilogy was Jack Nicholson. His feelings were strong enough to criticize the films to their lead actor's face.

Elijah Wood recalled that incident when he was on The Graham Norton Show.

According to him, he and Nicholson were discussing The Return of the King, the film concluding the trilogy and Nicholson asked him, "What happened?" Wood was surprised and not sure what he meant, until Nicholson added, "Well, tell me what the end was."

Nicholson did not even try to hide from Wood that when he tried to watch the film, he walked out of the theater before it was over.

As Wood explained, Nicholson told him, "It just had so many endings ... It just wouldn't end."

And to be fair to Nicholson, having four to six, depending on what you count, ending scenes is a very, very common criticism of The Return of the King.

A lot of the sixth part of The Lord of the Rings's book was an extended epilogue, dedicated not so much to endings of characters' personal stories, as much as to the ending of the whole Age.

So even though the film version cut away a lot of content from the book, including the Scouring of the Shire, endings just kept piling on and on – for 27 minutes, after the defeat of Sauron, enough for a whole TV episode or a third of an ordinary film.

But on the other hand, this criticism is a bit unfair. After all, this nearly half an hour was needed to finish the entire trilogy. As its screenwriter Philippa Boyens said in an interview at New York Comic Con (via Yahoo Entertainment):

"Can I just for the record say, 'I don't give a s***'? We weren't ending one film; we were ending three films."

Plus, the monumental, world-changing nature of events required some respect and attention. So, while Nicholson's reaction is understandable, so was the decision to extend the ending this much.