M. Night Shyamalan’s Split Has Already Grossed $100M
Not a bad return for a movie that cost $9 million to make.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Split topped the box office again over the weekend, outperforming Box Office Mojo projections to earn another $26 million and change. The weekend haul, plus impressive totals in foreign markets, pushed the movie past $100 million worldwide gross.
Shyamalan had a stretch of popular films in the late ’90s and early 2000s. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village all grossed more than $95 million domestically, and the first three got decent reviews. But he’s skidded both critically and commercially since then. His only film to hit that $95 million mark since 2004 was The Last Airbender, an adaptation of a popular kids’ show. It remains his worst-reviewed film.
But Split has received relatively good reviews and strong word-of-mouth, and has now topped the box office for consecutive weeks. It is on pace to go over $100 million domestically alone, and is outpacing similar horror/thriller films financially.
Split is distributed by Universal Pictures, a subsidiary of Philadelphia’s Comcast. A Dog’s Purpose, based on the popular book by W. Bruce Cameron, finished second at the box office this weekend. It is also distributed by Universal Pictures. Shyamalan has said he wants his next movie to be a sequel to Unbreakable.
If you’ve seen Split, last week I broke down the ending and explained why it was so cool.