# What is the most 'walked out of' movie ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971 "2006-05-23T22:39:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/41 "2006-05-24T04:47:06Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’d bet that it’s some art flick like Andy Warhol’s **Empire**. 485 minutes – \*Eight Freakin’ Hours and Five Minutes \* of black and white silent unmoving imagery of the Empire State Building. It’s not static – you see the light change as the sun moves – but it’s a real test of your dedication. I’ll bet the vast majority of film buffs give up long before the end, no matter how committed. The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak, and I wouldn’t blame it. > > [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196530/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196530/) > > You could always watch his **Sleep**. It’s only five hours long: > > [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187513/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0187513/) My favorite is _Blowjob_. Much shorter. ---
**Author:** ![XaMcQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f9ae1b/32.png) [@XaMcQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XaMcQ)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/42 "2006-05-24T04:49:50Z")
I have a no walk-out policy myself, because I paid for the movie, and no matter how bad it is I usually want to know how it ends. I do wish that I had made exceptions for ‘Howard the Duck’ and ‘Star Trek VI’ to this day. Blegh. Yuck. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/43 "2006-05-24T04:53:18Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > My favorite is _Blowjob_. Much shorter. Although, come to think of it–in reference to _A Clockwork Orange_–which I think is a great movie–there are times when I prefer the original version, Warhol’s _Vinyl_. Hard to track down, but worthwhile if you can. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/44 "2006-05-24T05:06:26Z")
If you read the trivia at IMDB for [Irreversible](http://imdb.com/title/tt0290673/trivia) it says: > [@](#): > > -Newsweek stated that this was the most walked out of movie of the year. > > -The first 30 minutes of the film has a background noise with a frequency of 28Hz (low frequency, almost inaudible), similar to the noise produced by an earthquake. In humans, it causes nausea, sickness and vertigo. It was the main cause of people walking out of the theaters during the first part of the film in places like Cannes and San Sebastian. In fact, it was added with the purpose of getting this reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Jebus\_H.Christ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Jebus\_H.Christ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jebus_H.Christ)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/45 "2006-05-24T05:13:26Z")
I have no cite to back this up but I remember hearing that Woody Allen films in the early 90’s had a lot of walkouts. But it was due to the handheld camera work. I think Husbands and Wives was considered the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/46 "2006-05-24T05:14:05Z")
We walked out of _The Story of O_. We knew what it was about, and weren’t offended, but decided that it wasn’t at all interesting - and we figured the end was going to be worse. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/47 "2006-05-24T05:28:35Z")
> [@Gozu Tashoya](#): > > I don’t know if this counts as leaving “during” the movie, but a fairly large number of **Lords of the Rings** fans bought tickets for **Thirteen Days** just to watch the LotR trailer. After the trailer, many of them left. > > So technically, a lot of them left before the movie even started, but that’s my nomination. I bet the same was true for The Phantom Menace, whatever movie that trailer appeared with. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/48 "2006-05-24T05:29:28Z")
lets see, I have a don’t walk out policy, but I don’t make a religion out of it, thus: The Basketball Diaries in sheer boredom. I think I saw more people walk out of Aristocrats than any other movie I been in, the theatre was pretty clear about what people were getting themselves into, so I don’t get that. I’ve turned off/fallen asleep a lot of dvds. ---
**Author:** ![Jebus\_H.Christ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Jebus\_H.Christ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jebus_H.Christ)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/49 "2006-05-24T05:31:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I bet the same was true for The Phantom Menace, whatever movie that trailer appeared with. Meet Joe Black ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/50 "2006-05-24T06:17:44Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > If you read the trivia at IMDB for [Irreversible](http://imdb.com/title/tt0290673/trivia) it says: -Newsweek stated that this was the most walked out of movie of the year. Okay . Now we are getting somewhere. Did Newsweek actually make this up, or are stats actually kept on ‘The most walked out movie of the year’. Why not say ‘most hated movie of the year’ or something like it ? Is it just anecdotal evidence of being ‘The most walked out of movie of the year’ ? Can anyone find a cite from newsweek? Because I cannot. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/51 "2006-05-24T06:52:10Z")
A group of friends and I went to see Vampires (James Woods) back in University and by the time we left most of the theatre was gone. That’s the only movie I’ve walked out of. ---
**Author:** ![sleeping\_mud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58f4c7/32.png) [@sleeping\_mud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping_mud)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/52 "2006-05-24T07:01:34Z")
I do not know the answer to the OP, but I walked out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/53 "2006-05-24T07:03:49Z")
I have walked out of exactly three movies. One was [_Unfaithfully Yours_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088326/) which insulted my intelligence at 13. (I haven’t screened it since, but I think at the point I gave up on it, a man was running around the house Benny Hill-style wearing a pig mask with a woman on his back. I’m _pretty_ sure I wasn’t missing anything.) A couple years later I walked out on Jean-Luc Godard’s [_Je vous salue, Marie_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089366/), because it was simply boring the tits off me, and I opted to walk across the street to see [Robert Altman’s butchering of National Lampoon’s _O.C. & Stiggs_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089715/). Not even a lobster! The only thing that kept me from walking out was that I didn’t want to pay for _two_ movies and not get through any. I went back to _Je vous salue, Marie_ a few years after that, and enjoyed it immensely. The last movie I walked out of was Lars von Trier’s [_Dancer in the Dark_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168629/). I hasten to add that it was certainly not my choice to walk out of it – my date couldn’t take it, and although there are _many, many_ things for which I could choose to harbour a grudge against that woman, that one incident is really the only one that still puts a hair up my ass now that I’ve managed to get shut of her. Grrrr! (Lars von Trier is among my favourite directors and _Dancer in the Dark_ has become my favourite film by him.) One bonus: When I was very young, I was _driven_ out (in a car, not with firebrands and clubs) of _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_. It was a double feature, and my parents had sat through the Ramones’ _Rock & Roll High School_ thinking that we were in for a proper Horror Show. To their way of thinking, a semi-naked Jamie Lee Curtis gauging Michael Meyers’ eyes out with a knitting needle was just fine for an eight-year-old, but a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania was Simply Not On. Go figure. If I had to make any conclusion based on my limited experience with walking out of movies, I guess it would be that it often has more to do with the ambulators than it does with the movie. ---
**Author:** ![2MuchTrivia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e9bcb4/32.png) [@2MuchTrivia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2MuchTrivia)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/54 "2006-05-24T07:16:30Z")
I also have a no walk-out mentality. I, however, wanted to walk out on _Sideways_ at least 3 times. I fell asleep the first time I saw _Predator_. I also almost walked during _Pink Flamingos_ (the original “chicken fucker” re: South Park), the last scene made me gag, but I stayed. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/55 "2006-05-24T08:36:24Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Every so often, Disney re-releases some of their cartoons for theatrical runs, although usually its something much more high-profile than _The Aristocats_. I can see a parent seeing the name in the listings when looking for something to take the kids to, and assuming it’s the cartoon from their own childhood without ever seeing an actual advertisement for it. Which wouldn’t be hard, as it was a pretty small release. Disney hasn’t re-released their old films to theaters for at least ten years. They re-release them briefly on VHS (now DVD), then place them on moratorium for a ten-year period. ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/56 "2006-05-24T09:31:33Z")
I’ve walked out of a fair number of movies, but the only two that come to mind right now are the bottomlessly awful [Evolution](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0251075) and the _excruciatingly_ “arty” [Moon in the Gutter](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085878), which I wanted to hurt and hurt badly. In a similar vein as the latter, I would most certainly have walked out of Godard’s [Alphaville](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058898) if I had seen it in a theater. I tried to find some value within, but the dialogue was quite pretentious and it grated tremendously that he didn’t even _try_ to provide reasonably futuristic sets or props. For example, to go from one “galaxy” to another, the hero simply _drives_ his ridiculous Citroën there! One thing that has disturbed me somewhat upon reading this thread is the large number of people who proclaim – quite proudly it seems to me – that they have a “no walkout policy”. What the Holy Jumping Fuck??? If someone starts shooting at you, do you have a “no ducking policy”, too? What, are you masochists or something? **Get up off your ass and get your money back!** Such feedback may well help ensure that fewer bad films are made. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/57 "2006-05-24T10:21:46Z")
> [@ambushed](#): > > One thing that has disturbed me somewhat upon reading this thread is the large number of people who proclaim – quite proudly it seems to me – that they have a “no walkout policy”. What the Holy Jumping Fuck??? If someone starts shooting at you, do you have a “no ducking policy”, too? What, are you masochists or something? **Get up off your ass and get your money back!** Such feedback may well help ensure that fewer bad films are made. Do cinemas have a money back policy? At the cinema I worked out there was such a policy. But almost nobody knew it. If a customer complained to the manager that they did not like the movie the manager gave that person 2 free tickets to any movie. Probably less than 1% of people knew this and probably only 1 in a thousand actually took advantage of it. Obviously it would have changed if everyone knew about this. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/58 "2006-05-24T10:25:11Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > Disney hasn’t re-released their old films to theaters for at least ten years. They re-release them briefly on VHS (now DVD), then place them on moratorium for a ten-year period. Speakling of Disney, the only film I can remember walking out of (early too!) is THE LION KING. (I tolerated CALIGULA just fine.) I took my daughters to see it when they were maybe 7 and 3. During the stampede in the film’s first 10 or 15 minutes, my 7-year-old announced that she was leaving, “It’s too scary, Dad.” The 3-year-old concurred, and I was outvoted (Also out 21 dollars, less than a minute per buck.) The part that kills me is the next time the subject of Disney films came up, two or three years later, both daughters claimed they didnt like Disney because it was too bland and boring, and now I understand my older girl (at age 19) is an advocate of edgy, raw films that I might consider tasteless or sexually provocative, which is going some because I’m considered hard to shock or offend. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/59 "2006-05-24T10:49:46Z")
> [@ambushed](#): > > One thing that has disturbed me somewhat upon reading this thread is the large number of people who proclaim – quite proudly it seems to me – that they have a “no walkout policy”. What the Holy Jumping Fuck??? If someone starts shooting at you, do you have a “no ducking policy”, too? What, are you masochists or something? **Get up off your ass and get your money back!** Such feedback may well help ensure that fewer bad films are made. I can’t speak for others, but my ‘no walkout’ policy is because, in a perverse way, I like sitting through a bad movie. When I’m with friends, we intentionally seek out the worst possible movies to rent. It’s like people who use Dave’s Insanity Sauce. They aren’t hoping that it will start tasting different in a few minutes, they want the bragging rights of having survived it. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971/60 "2006-05-24T11:20:10Z")
Sorry, OP, no “stats”. Gonna have to go with anecdotes. My folks tell me they walked out of _A Clockwork Orange_. It’s not just the rape of the suburban couple, but there’s also the rape scene of the naked girl on the stage. When I saw _Aristocrats_, people walked out. I also saw _Fargo_ 3 times in the theater, and people walked out of that every time I saw it. Also, _City of God_ had some walkouts. Some of that art house crowd just doesn’t DO violence in movies, I think. Most recent walkout: Must Love Dogs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-walked-out-of-movie-ever/357971.md?page=4)