{"id":354873,"date":"2026-03-30T08:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T08:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/354873\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T08:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T08:04:13","slug":"ces-on-digitalm-night-shyamalans-career-saving-94-minute-thriller-that-grossed-20x-its-budget-resurfaces-on-digital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/354873\/","title":{"rendered":"ces on DigitalM. Night Shyamalan\u2019s Career-Saving 94-Minute Thriller That Grossed 20x Its Budget Resurfaces on Digital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Olivia DeJonge as Caitlin Attwater \" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Olivia-DeJonge.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Olivia-DeJonge.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n        Olivia DeJonge as Caitlin Attwater\u00a0Image via HBO<\/p>\n<p>When his career spiraled out of control in the early 2010s, <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/m-night-shyamalan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">M. Night Shyamalan<\/a> made the safe choice to turn director-for-hire. Instead of trying to get <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/m-night-shyamalan-movies-ranked\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">his original scripts made,<\/a> he agreed to direct a vehicle for <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/will-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Will Smith<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/jaden-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jaden Smith<\/a>. The star vehicle in question, <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/after-earth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">After Earth<\/a>, was put together less like a movie from the heart than a carefully studied project that could take the younger Smith&#8217;s career to the next level following a well-received debut with <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/movie\/the-karate-kid-2010\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Karate Kid<\/a>. However, the experiment ended up backfiring massively; not only did Jaden never headline a movie again, but Shyamalan found himself in a worse position than he&#8217;d ever been in professionally. This time, he didn&#8217;t take the safe route. Instead, he went back to basics and put his money where his mouth is. Shyamalan&#8217;s follow-up film emerged as a hit and helped revive his now-thriving career.<\/p>\n<p>The movie is over a decade old now but remains well-liked on home video. It recently witnessed a spike in viewership, emerging as one of the most-watched titles on the domestic Google Play Store chart. Unlike <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/m-night-shyamalan-movies-ranked-rotten-tomatoes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shyamalan&#8217;s previous movies,<\/a> which usually attracted A-list talent and were typically expensive enough to afford top-tier stars, his 2015 comeback vehicle was headlined by two child actors. The biggest name in the cast was <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/kathryn-hahn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kathryn Hahn<\/a>, who appeared only briefly. The movie cost $5 million to produce, which Shyamalan <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/m-night-shyamalan-old-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">put up himself in order to have skin in the game<\/a>, and was subsequently picked up by <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/blumhouse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Blumhouse<\/a> and distributed by Universal.<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"440\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ma-Rainey's-Black-Bottom-Chadwick-Boseman\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ma-rainey-s-black-bottom-chadwick-boseman.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ma-rainey-s-black-bottom-chadwick-boseman.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/movie-quiz-mar-27-2026-posthumous-award-winners\/\" title=\"Remembering the Icons of Film \u2014 Collider Movie Quiz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tRemembering the Icons of Film \u2014 Collider Movie Quiz<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">We pay tribute to the talents who helped define Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>                        Shyamalan Is Putting Together a Movie With Jake Gyllenhaal Next<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re talking, of course, about <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/the-visit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Visit<\/a>. Originally thought to be titled Sundowning, the movie follows two young children who are left in the care of their grandparents, only to discover sinister goings-on at the house. The movie was filmed in the found-footage format, which was hugely popular in that era thanks to hits such as <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/paranormal-activity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Paranormal Activity<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/cloverfield\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cloverfield<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/unfriended\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Unfriended<\/a>. It ended up grossing nearly $100 million worldwide and putting Shyamalan&#8217;s career back on track. The Visit now holds a 68% score on <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/rotten-tomatoes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rotten Tomatoes,<\/a> where the consensus reads, &#8220;The Visit provides horror fans with a satisfying blend of thrills and laughs \u2014 and also signals a welcome return to form for writer-director M. Night Shyamalan.&#8221; Shyamalan went on to make a handful of hits over the next decade, and is now putting together the supernatural romance film <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/m-night-shyamalan-nicholas-sparks-movie-remain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Remain<\/a>, starring <a href=\"https:\/\/collider.com\/tag\/jake-gyllenhaal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jake Gyllenhaal<\/a> and scheduled for release in February 2027. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivia DeJonge as Caitlin Attwater\u00a0Image via HBO When his career spiraled out of control in the early 2010s,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-354873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}