Director M. Night Shyamalan has a history of self-financing his movies, and that continued with his latest effort, Glass. According to Forbes, Shyamalan made Glass with $20 million of his own money. That money was a combination of the earnings from his two most recent movies, Split and The Visit, as well as collateral from his 125-acre estate in Pennsylvania.
According to the report, Shyamalan took out a $5 million loan on his home years ago pay for The Visit. The movie was a huge success, going on to make $98 million worldwide. For Split, Shyamalan paid the $9 million production budget himself, and then reaped the benefits, as the movie earned a massive $278 million at the box office. The successes of The Visit and Split, as well as the aforementioned collateral, allowed Shyamalan to cover Glass’ $20 million production budget.
Glass is expected to make more than $40 million in the US and Canada alone this weekend, according to Entertainment Weekly, so it appears it’ll be another profitable film for Shyamalan.
As Forbes points out, it’s not uncommon for up-and-coming directors to finance their films with their own money, but Shyamalan is an established director whose movies make a lot of money no matter what you say about their quality. One reason why Shyamalan opts to finance his movies out of his own pocket is because when big studio money gets involved, directors like Shyamalan generally have to give up some amount of creative control. Shyamalan financing movies himself theoretically gives him more freedom.
Glass, which stars James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, and Bruce Willis, has received a mixed critical reaction. GameSpot’s review said it was a disappointment in some ways, while other critics had problems with it, too. For more, check out GameSpot’s Glass review roundup to see what other critics are saying.
