M. Night Shyamalan Movies

M.Night Shyamalan's movie career got off to a great start.
M.Night Shyamalan’s movie career got off to a great start.

Want to know the best M. Night Shyamalan movies?  How about the worst M. Night Shyamalan movies?  Curious about M. Night Shyamalan’s box office grosses or which M. Night Shyamalan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which M. Night Shyamalan movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

This page was originally part of a Shyamalan, Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino movie page.  Part of that original page was this little skit I wrote that looked at all three of their movie careers.  I figured even though I was giving each director his own page that I would still include the skit.

Christopher, Quentin and M.Night are at a bar drinking Shiner Bock beers, smoking Red Apple cigarettes and arguing about who will be the next Spielberg.

Quentin: It has to be me, I have been directing movies for over 20 years, my Pulp Fiction is a classic, people love my Kill Bill movies, Reservoir Dogs put independent movies on the map while Inglourious Basterds was a box office hit and picked up 8 Oscar® nominations. And my latest movie, Django Unchained, was my biggest box office hit of my career.

M. Night: You’ve been around the longest but you have only made 10 movies in 25 years and Four Rooms, Jackie Brown, Death Proof and The Hateful Eight died at the box office…that is not a good percentage.

Christopher: You got no room to talk M., you have not had a box office success since The Village, and most people have hated every movie you have made since Signs….talk about some movies with horrible reviews….you got The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening , The Last Airbender and After Earth all lined up in a row.

M. Night: Well Mr. Nolan, at least Quentin and I have an Oscar® nomination for Best Director in our resume. And I know you remember how I was considered to be the next Spielberg after the success of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. I think you are forgetting The Last Airbender earned over $300 million in worldwide box office and was the 21st biggest hit of the year…plus After Earth did pretty well overseas.

Quentin: I actually have two Best Director Oscar® nominations…but who is counting. Sorry to have to tell you M. Night, but I do not think anybody has compared you to Spielberg in a very longtime….and as for The Last Airbender, true it made some money but I think it was the worst reviewed movie in the last 20 years….and I think the less said about After Earth the better.

Christopher: Speaking of box office hits…do you know my last four movies have a worldwide box office over 3 billion dollars? That includes The Dark Knight that crossed a billion at the box office, Inception which earned over $800 million and The Dark Knight Rises which also crossed the one billion mark.  My latest blockbuster, Interstellar picked up $672 million.  Plus my upcoming, Dunkirk, will be my Saving Private Ryan which is yet another reason I now am considered the next Spielberg….sorry I took that title away from you M. Night.

M. Night: Maybe the last ten years have been a little rough for my movies, but I am on the road back…first The Visit was well received and now Split is on the way to being one of my biggest hits.

Quentin: Sorry to interrupt you M.Night, I agree Split was a success for you…hopefully you won’t follow it up with another Lady in the Water. As for you Chris, I loved Memento, The Prestige, and Insomnia but I think the Batman movies are overrated and I still do not understand your dream inside a dream inside a dream movie. And don’t even get me started on the ending of Interstellar….

Christopher: Hey I am sorry if you are not smart enough to figure out Inception, but I will try and explain it for you and don’t worry I will go real slow so maybe you will finally understand.

Quentin: (Reaches into his bag and slams two Oscars® down on the table) I am smart enough to know that this proves I am the best director in this group!

Christopher: You got those Oscars® for the screenplays for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, not for directing it. I’ll show you an award for directing…here is my COFCA (Central Ohio Film Critics Association) award for Best Director for Inception.

M. Night: I did not know we were supposed to bring our directing awards tonight.

Quentin: Yeah you could have brought either one of your Razzie awards as worst director for either The Happening or The Last Airbender.

At this point M.Night swipes the Oscar® and the COFCA off the table and a huge fight breaks out among the three directors. While the fight continues an older gentlemen who had been listening to the conversation grabs his stuff, pays his bill and starts to leave the bar.

Older gentleman to bartender: (Shaking his head in dismay) I just do not understand these younger directors…they have so much more to learn.

Bartender: I agree with you 100%….have a great night Mr. Spielberg.

M. Night Shyamalan’s IMDb page shows 14 directing credits from 1992-2017. This page will rank 11 M. Night Shyamalan movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.  His television shows and straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.

Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis in 1999's The Sixth Sense
Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis in 1999’s The Sixth Sense

M. Night Shyamalan Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort M. Night Shyamalan movies co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort M. Night Shyamalan movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort M. Night Shyamalan movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort M. Night Shyamalan movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each M. Night Shyamalan movie received.
  • Sort M. Night Shyamalan movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above M. Night Shyamalan Table

  1. Five M. Night Shyamalan movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 45.45% of his movies listed.  The Sixth Sense (1999) is his biggest hit.
  2. An average M. Night Shyamalan movie earned $146.00 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  5 of M. Night Shyamalan movies are rated as good movies…or 45.45% of his movies.  The Sixth Sense (1999) is his highest rated movie while The Last Airbender (2010) is his lowest rated movie.
  4. Two M. Night Shyamalan movies have been nominated for at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…or 18.18 of his movies
  5. Zero M. Night Shyamalan movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 0.00% of his movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00.  6 M. Night Shyamalan movies scored higher that average….or 54.54% of his movies. The Sixth Sense (1999) got the the highest UMR Score while Wide Awake (1998) got the lowest UMR Score.
Mel Gibson in 2002's Signs
Mel Gibson in 2002’s Signs

Check out M. Night Shyamalan career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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56 thoughts on “M. Night Shyamalan Movies

  1. Very interesting movie page. Thanks for the humor early on. Wasn’t “Mulholland Drive” a Tarentino movie? Loved that movie because it was so odd. Loved “Inglorious Bastards,” but didn’t love the violence, although, I know, I know, one has to cringe through it to value the whole movie. I thought it was a great movie. Took me years to see Pulp Fiction and I appreciated elements about it, just don’t like the shock value of the violence. Loved “The Sixth Sense,” and you can’t really remake that. Unique imaginative films are a one time love affair with your brain, don’t you think? I might be bias, but I don’t see how anyone could take Spielburg’s place, yet. Thumbs up on your piece, very good.

    1. Hey ytsenoh….Mulholland Drive is a very strange movie and I think was influenced by Tarantino….but as Flora mentioned it is directed by David Lynch….who probably makes some of the stranger movies out there….Elephant Man, Dune, Crash(not the Oscar winner), Eraserhead, and Blue Velvet.

      Glad you liked the humor at the beginning of the skit. Two of the movies you mention, Pulp Fiction and The Sixth Sense are in my Top Ten of all-time favorite movies. I agree with you Spielberg will never be replaced. But many will try and be as succesful as he has been….thanks for stopping by and for the comment.

    2. ytsenoh – No, David Lynch directed Mulholland Drive. It is a great thriller. He is the same director of Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai, both Best Picture Oscar winners.

      Bruce: David Lynch might be a possible director movie page in the future.

      1. Hey Flora….I think David Lynch and David Lean would make good hub subjects….Steve has suggested David Lean before…and Lean directed some of my father’s favorite movies…like Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawerence of Arabia….I will add them to the list of hub subjects for the future.

        1. I see I screwed up David Lynch and David Lean’s names.I can see by the titles you list for Lynch that this is waht happened as I’ve seen M. Drive only of the ones you’ve listed here. I think David L. Oh,yes, must be the same person. Nooo.

          I did watch Twin Peaks, (Lynch).

          Must remember there is more than one David L. …….

          1. It is ok Flora, one David L is as good as the next David L…lol. As for David Lynch I do not think you are missing much…unless of course you like movies that are very confusing and offer no real answers as to what the movie was really about…..as for David Lean….he did not really make many movies but the ones he did direct, most are classics.

  2. Great play with them so in love with themselves they don’t know their idol is in the bar. Funny skit.

    Well, I’ve seen a couple of films only of all three of these directors only. And the films are earlier in their careers. Therefore, there is no point in going over percentages or favourites like I do usually, even with current personalities like Williams. as you can guess, I am not interested in directors near my age who direct blockbusters (er…supposed to be blockbusters). Now art film directors, well that would interest me if they got Oscar buzz or Independent Spirit awards buzz.

    M.Night S.: Well, I have seen only one movie. No, it was not The sixth Sense, the ending was ruined for me before I saw it. I will likely see the movie on TV sometime.

    But the film I saw was Signs. In the theatre of all places. Not what one would expect of me regarding a film about possible aliens.

    (What? Flora saw a film in the theatre? Before awards season? Why? Well, without going into too much detail, there were things going on in my life that year that I would go to the movies often no matter what film I saw because that was the only chance I had of seeing someone outside my home. That was in my period after university grad that I had too much free time on my hands and feeling discouraged. I saw a large number of films in 2002 and 2003 at the theatre earlier than awards season.) Signs was okay. It kept entertained while I was at the theatre but that is all.

    1. Cogerson
      Hey Flora…I am glad you enjoyed my little play….I was actually out on a run when this idea popped into my head…and then when I realized that none of the directors has a huge amount of movies I figured I would put them all together.

      As for M. Night….the Sixth Sense was another awesome movie experience…and even if you know the trick ending it is still an outstanding movie….a horror movie with very little gore….Signs was huge back in 2002, so I am not too shocked you saw it at the theater….I think I saw it a big group as well..the ending was a let down…and I do not think I have enjoyed another Shyamalan movie since then.

  3. Night Shyamalan lost his appeal long ago. In my opinion, his hasn’t had a good movie since The Sixth Sense… oh wait, that was his only good movie.

    1. Hey Jeannieinabottle….I think we have the same exact thought process…I was a huge M.Night fan and then came The Village.

  4. Like Jennifer, I too thought the opening was pretty funny to read. Although I never really heard of anyone comparing those guys to become the next Steven Spielberg, as that’s fairly new to me. However, that’s fairly interesting.

    I honestly don’t think you can compare these directors though, as each one seems to have their style of film making that’s drastically different from Spielberg’s style.

    However, it’s interesting to say the least. To be honest, I don’t think there ever will be another spielberg; just like there will never be another Alfred Hitchcock or another Martin Scorsese. I think in the end all these film makers have their own unique style.

    Anyway, great job putting this together, as it was definitely interesting to read. 🙂

    1. Hey Stevennix2001….glad you that you thought it was fun to read as well. I remember that Shyamalan used to get compared to Spielberg all the time….but around Lady in the Water that talked stopped. Nolan gets mentioned with Spielberg due to the fact that the Academy has ignored him like they did Spielberg early in his career. I do not think I have heard anybody compare Tarantino to Spielberg. You are 100% correct there will never be another Spielberg, Scorsese or a Hitchcock…but it is fun to compare them. Thanks for checking out my latest movie page

  5. I loved the first part of this page, what a funny scene that would be and especially enjoyed Speilberg showing up at the end. Very very funny. As for the directors, give me Nolan everyday of the week. Taratino is too violent for my tastes and Shymalan seems to get worse every time he has a new movie. Although the new Will Smith movie sounds like it might be good. Voted up and very funny. Thanks for making me laugh.

    1. Hey Jennifer1974….I am so glad you have come from ChimeIn to comment on this page. I am really glad that you enjoyed my little “play”…it was really fun to write and something totally different than my normal hubs. I agree with you about Nolan…he seems to be following Spielberg’s footsteps very closely. But as M. Night can attest…it is easy to fail off that path….thanks for the votes up and the comments.

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