With mixed reviews and a C+ Cinemascore grade, I’m not expecting legs. Most of his least successful films ( Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender, After Earth) weren’t horror movies, and thus did little damage to his brand as one of Hollywood’s most distinctive creators of cinematic nightmares. Despite all the handwringing and derision over the last 15 years, Shyamalan never stopped being a marquee filmmaker. Although, when your horror movie costs just $18 million, you can “afford” an R-rating, but I digress. Like his last three flicks, Old is self-financed, so Shyamalan has quickly become one of the more mainstream indie filmmakers of our time. That’s likely to end with a Fr-Sun debut of $16-$19 million, depending on legs. The $18 million Old earned $6.88 million on Friday, including $1.5 million in previews. Had the mixed reviews and lack of stars caused a lower-than-hoped debut, well, that’s around $15-$18 million. In normal circumstances, we’d probably be looking at a $20-$25 million opening weekend. The folks quickly discover that something at the beach is sending the aging process into overdrive. Loosely based on the French graphic novel Sand Castle, Old concerns a handful of vacationers young and old who are spirited away to a “not in the brochure” hideaway. Night Shyamalan is back with his first summer horror flick since The Happening (which Old most closely resembles for better or worse) in June of 2008. Night Shyamalan’s Old is a successful disappointment. was unofficially arguing for a $20 million debut and the pundits were hoping for $25 million, a $31 million launch was a relative win. For example, last weekend’s Space Jam: A New Legacy opening with $31 million would have been a stumble under normal circumstances, due to a $150 million budget and little likelihood of long legs. All Rights Reserved.įor those who haven’t done the reading, the term “successful disappointment” refers to when a film opening during the pandemic performs about as well (on opening weekend and/or overall) as it would have had it disappointed or underperformed in normal circumstances. (from left) Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), Patricia (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Jarin (Ken Leung), Guy (Gael García Bernal) and Prisca (Vicky Krieps) in Old, written for the screen and directed by M.