Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004
Night’s day
It was three years ago today.
On 6th August 1999, The Sixth Sense opened at theatres in the USA. It starred Bruce Willis but it wasn’t an action film. It was a ghost story written and directed by a little known guy called M Night Shyamalan, whose first two films had collected a sparkling $350,000.
The Sixth Sense opened on Shyamalan’s birthday. The Runaway Bride was wowing the box office. The Blair Witch Project was achieving near cult status. TIME and Newsweek had carried cover stories on these two films. Even Shyamalan’s producers thought The Sixth Sense would do well to open at number three.
The film collected $8 million on its first Friday. On Sunday, it outdid Friday and closed the weekend at number one with a $27 million take.
Most movies register a 45% drop by the second weekend. The better movies drop 30%. The smash movies drop about 25%. But The Sixth Sense, at a mere 2%, almost didn’t drop at all. It continued to cross the $20 million mark for five straight weekends, a feat that only Titanic had managed till then.
The Sixth Sense eventually made $700 million worldwide to become the sixth biggest film of all time. Right up there with Titanic, Jurassic Park and Star Wars. Shyamalan’s next film, Unbreakable, pulled $200 million.
At a time when Indian cinema is obsessed with crossover films, it should take a cue from this 32-year-old Pondicherry-born director who has not merely crossed over but leapt the great divide. He tells Premiere magazine about how a security guard at a store recognized him and said he loved his films. “And the world got smaller,†Shyamalan is quoted as saying. “It’s hard to be racist when your favourite movie is made by a little Indian guy, you know?â€
Shyamalan’s latest film, Signs, opened in the USA on Friday and should hit India in three weeks if it travels at the same speed as Spiderman. It has a big studio (Disney), two big stars (Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix) and a director on the threshold of the billionaire club.
What is most impressive is that Shyamalan is speaking in his own voice. His choice of subjects is risky but he handles them with the deftness of a master. With The Sixth Sense, he made us believe in ghosts. In Unbreakable, he used an invincible protagonist to remind us how vulnerable we all are. With Signs, he tackles the subject of aliens.
That’s why, at a time when Hollywood is repeating itself with Austin Powers 3, Men in Black 2 and Stuart Little 2, it is Shyamalan who features on the cover of Newsweek as the great original.
History is possibly the only thing M Night Shyamalan will repeat.