Time to Get Even -- Have EVERYONE Walk Out of The Happening

This whole situation has got me thinking:

Here's the underlying problem I have with The Happening. The movie is terrible. It's awful and insulting. To a great extent it relies on realistically depicted suicide as entertainment.

I've seen comments by Shyamalan saying he was looking for a great B movie. Well, pal, you missed. Want a great B movie? How about Evil Dead 2, Godzilla Final Wars, Ghost Rider, The Reanimator, Dude, Where's My Car? or Detour?

And there's no way to talk to a movie studio. No way to make them listen. You could say, "boycott The Happening," and it would mean nothing. The Happening had a $30M opening weekend. Even if you get no one else to go, it means nothing. Studio execs truly could not care less about you and your opinion. Pay your price, come see whatever we dish out to you, next!

There's no form of dialog. There's no way of saying, "You know what, you big table full of stuffed shirts? What you have here is a bad idea, done badly."

According to the National Association of Theatre Owners (the other NATO), the average ticket price people are paying this year is around seven bucks. That's seven bucks after tax and before gasoline/family members/concessions. That's a lot of money to just be served out a big heaping pile of crap and then being expected to just put up with it.

And then it hit me.

Everyone should walk out of the movie. I'm not talking about something slimey like watching the whole thing and then asking for your money back. I mean, do what I did: buy a ticket, go in, see a few people jump and go out and ask to be credited for another movie. It's easy. It's simple. There's already a process set up for it.

And if enough people do it, it'll really start to make waves.

If one person does it, no one will notice. If everyone starts doing it, very quickly the studio will be duking it out amongst themselves and the theaters. Rupert Murdoch, the top-dog at Fox (the studio who brought you this abortion) is 77 years old. When you buy a ticket to a film, you're very literally putting money in his multi-billionaire pocket. Do you think he has any inkling of who you are, or even cares that you have to put up with this? Almost certainly not.

Do you think he has any understanding of the underlying potential power of the Internet? The fact that you're reading this right now? He doesn't, but some of the underlings way way down in his organization think they do.

If everyone starts walking out of one of his films, and it starts making news, do you think it will matter then? Not at first. But all it takes is for this to eventually bubble up to Murdochian levels and somewhere some type of discussion will start. It won't erase the blot that is The Happening, but it will make them think twice (or at least 1.001 times) in the future. It might make them reconsider before they bludgeon you with something else idiotic and expect you to pay for it with no dissent.

I'll talk about all these items more in the Q&A, but here's the top line of what I'm asking:

* When you go to the theatre to see anything, ask for a ticket to see The Happening. Walk out and ask for a ticket in exchange for the movie you want to see.

* If you've already seen The Happening (whether or not you have a ticket stub) send a letter asking for a refund (I've got one on the Q&A page you can use) to:

Rupert Murdoch
CEO
News Corporation
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

As Howard Beale said in Network, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." You don't have to either.

Thank you, most sincerely, for your support.