Stephen King Says Michael Bay's Transformers Is the 'Only' Movie He's Ever Walked Out of as Adult

Ulf Andersen/Getty; DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures./Ronald Grant/Everett Collection

Stephen King couldn't sit through Transformers.

The popular horror novelist, 74, shared on Twitter Monday that when he went to see the 2007 action blockbuster, he left the theater midway through the film. King made the revelation while reacting to fellow author Linwood Barclay admitting he recently walked out of Jurassic World Dominion.

"I have walked out of only one movie as an adult: TRANSFORMERS. Would like to know what other movies people have walked out on," wrote King, later clarifying to a fan that it was indeed "Michael Bay. The first one" in the franchise.

King's followers responded with their own experiences leaving movies early and also had fun with the writer's movie-going admission. "The thought of Stephen King walking up to the counter like, 'one adult for TRANSFORMERS, please,' is absolutely killing me," joked one person. Another person tweeted that they walked out of 2007's The Mist — which is based on King's book.

"I'm so sorry in advance…i walked out of the Mist in 2007…i was 15 years old, i got scared I went because i was a hardcore fan of your books, but i couldn't stay it was too much," the fan tweeted to King.

Bay directed five Transformers movies, with sequels that hit theaters in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2017. Another installment, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, is being directed by Steven Caple Jr.

RELATED: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Will Launch New Trilogy in 2023, Animated Installment Also Planned

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

While speaking to Unilad UK earlier this year, Bay said Steven Spielberg, who produced Transformers, once advised him to leave the Transformers franchise after completing a trilogy, but he rejected the director's advice.

"I made too many of them," Bay said. "Steven Spielberg said, 'Just stop at three'. And I said I'd stop. The studio begged me to do a fourth, and then that made a billion too. And then I said I'm gonna stop here. And they begged me again. I should have stopped. [But] they were fun to do."

Reflecting on the first 2007 film, which starred Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox, Bay said, "The first one was scary." He explained, "It was technology we didn't know would work, and then it became very successful." Bay added, "It was the first time digital effects were that highly reflective, so it broke a lot of new ground. It was a fun experience. It made more than [$709 million]; that's a lot of movie tickets and a lot of people that have seen it."

King directed one movie in his film career: 1986's Maximum Overdrive. Its star Emilio Estevez told Vanity Fair last March he regretted doing the movie.

"I'm not speaking out of class because he knows it's a terrible movie, but Stephen King often talks about his one directorial experience on Maximum Overdrive, which I was in. The few times that I've connected with him over the years, he's like, 'Can you forgive me for that?' I think at one point my mom said, 'Why'd you do that movie?' I said, 'I wanted to work with Stephen King.' And she said, 'Couldn't you have helped him paint his house?' "