A more enjoyable read than I had expected. But it's a long read and a puff piece for Trap (2024) - big spoiler alert in the last paragraphs. Spoiler for folks who just want the title question...
A more enjoyable read than I had expected. But it's a long read and a puff piece for Trap (2024) - big spoiler alert in the last paragraphs.
Spoiler for folks who just want the title question answered:
Shyamalan, by contrast, makes original movies, even as his name on the marquee promises something reliable: horror that is self-consciously over-the-top, even campy—plus an explosive finale. Moviegoers, once irked by his predictability, now seem to appreciate him for it.
But I think it's less "audience likes what he makes more than superhero films" and more "ultra low budget --> he literally bets his own house to fund them --> low budget films makes money"
" He took out a loan against his house to fund a documentary-style horror movie called The Visit" [...which...] "ended up making nearly $100 million worldwide, 20 times its budget.
The success of The Visit set in motion a new budgeting approach for Shyamalan. He would fund every project himself, using his estate as collateral, and try to make his movies as efficiently as he could. His follow-up to The Visit was Split (2016), [...] it grossed $278 million worldwide, against a budget of $9 million. “The theory is, make it as small as humanly possible,” Shyamalan said. The process, he told me, has been “both freeing and scary.”
---
Reason why I said this was a puff piece is that it did not even mention 2010's The Last Airbender, which cost $150m. Although it grossed $320m, it was also a franchise ending flop. Paramount could have had its own family friendly cinematic universe, but it miscarried because they had hired someone with entirely the wrong set of skills:
One of Shyamalan’s skills is his ability to take a comforting notion—making a better society for your children—and find the nightmare in it.
I think the article writer hit the nail on the head on what makes an M Night film. That'll make it an easy pass for me forever. What a sad mistake to have hired him for Avatar.
A more enjoyable read than I had expected. But it's a long read and a puff piece for Trap (2024) - big spoiler alert in the last paragraphs.
Spoiler for folks who just want the title question answered:
But I think it's less "audience likes what he makes more than superhero films" and more "ultra low budget --> he literally bets his own house to fund them --> low budget films makes money"
Reason why I said this was a puff piece is that it did not even mention 2010's The Last Airbender, which cost $150m. Although it grossed $320m, it was also a franchise ending flop. Paramount could have had its own family friendly cinematic universe, but it miscarried because they had hired someone with entirely the wrong set of skills:
I think the article writer hit the nail on the head on what makes an M Night film. That'll make it an easy pass for me forever. What a sad mistake to have hired him for Avatar.