Today, the whole world got together and said 'no' to Hollywood's creepy, lazy misogyny.

Today we can all give ourselves a pat on the back. We can turn to each other, with kindness in our eyes, and commend the collective wisdom of humanity.

Because we have done a great thing.

Normally human-caused emergent phenomena are terrible. Thousands of tiny, not-so-bad, every day choices, coming together to produce something appalling, like climate change, or the gender pay gap.

But not this. This is beautiful.

Together, through thousands of small choices, we have made something wonderful happen. We have made Seth MacFarlane’s latest movie flop.

Every single individual who thought about buying a ticket to see A Million Ways To Die In The West but then thought ‘Naahhh, better not’ has contributed to this glorious thing. Every person who didn’t even think about it at all has contributed to this momentous event.

This weekend, at the US box office A Million Ways To Die In The West made only $17.1 million dollars. Internationally, it did even worse, making only $10 million dollars. That is so many movie tickets not sold! That is one tenth of the movie tickets sold for Maleficent! That is so great.

It’s so great because A Million Ways To Die In The West is more than just a puerile, stupid comedy – although reviews suggest it certainly is that. No, A Million Ways To Die In The West – starred in, directed and written by Seth MacFarlane – is a representation of Hollywood’s willingness to give a man who has shown nothing but profound contempt for women his entire career a lot of money to do whatever he wants.

This movie’s failure is a line in the sand.

It is the world turning around and saying: “No thank you, I’d rather not watch a man who constantly makes light of domestic violence in his TV show Family Guy and at the Oscars, make poo jokes. I’d rather not have to sit through more of the same crap from someone who sang a song called ‘I Saw Your Boobs’ about actresses who’ve done rape scenes.

A Million Ways To Die In The West’s failure is a rejection of the kind of thinking that reduces women to prizes and objects. The kind of thinking that says women who don’t dish out sexual favours deserve to die. 

Does that sound a little extreme? Watch this.

This is exactly who Seth MacFarlane is. And this week, we said ‘No’ to him.

Sure box office analysts will suggest it’s because people just aren’t interested in Westerns. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s bigger than that, and I think it’s more amazing than that.

I think it’s the world saying no to the kind of creepy, lazy, smug, self indulgent misogyny that has been a blight on the comedic landscape since the first Babylonian stand up guy made his first ever ‘wife’ joke.

We did this. We said no to this. In doing so, we’re sending a clear message. We’re telling the film industry – an industry powered entirely by greed and cynicism – that men like Seth MacFarlane are no longer bankable.

We voted with our wallets. We voted with our good taste, and good on us, because we made the right choice.

Well done, world.