The January box office is set to finally heat up with the release of Glass, the third installment in a franchise that no one really saw coming.
Back in 2000, Unbreakable was a cinematic gem that moviegoers wouldn’t quite appreciate until time did it justice. Director M. Night Shyamalan was fresh off of the success of The Sixth Sense which was a box office hit and nominated for major awards at The Oscars. Many people wanted Unbreakable to essentially be another Sixth Sense and even the marketing wanted moviegoers to believe that was what they were getting.
Unbreakable wasn’t a flop upon release but its success seemed light when compared to The Sixth Sense. The film grossed $95 million at the domestic box office and $248.1 million worldwide but The Sixth Sense grossed $293 million in the states and $672.8 million worldwide and at the end of the day, many thought the followup didn’t quite measure up on the financial scale.
In the years since, Unbreakable has gained a cult following and is considered one of, if not the best, Shyamalan film in a career that has seen highs and lows. It’s interesting that back in 2000, Unbreakable received a “C” CinemaScore from opening day audiences and now it’s widely considered his masterpiece.
The connection between Unbreakable and this weekend’s Glass is the main reason that it should see a crazy good opening weekend but it’s also getting an assist from 2017’s Split which originally looked like its own standalone film but ended up sharing a connection to Unbreakable. Split was a huge success when it opened in January of 2017, grossing $40.2 million on its opening weekend and grossing $278.5 million worldwide by the end of its run. Split put attention back on Unbreakable and with Glass, we get the conclusion to Shyamalan’s unexpected comic book trilogy.
In Glass, James McAvoy reprises his Split role as Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man who suffers from an extreme case of Dissociative Identity Disorder, with 23 personalities. He becomes imprisoned at a mental hospital with Samuel L. Jackson’s evil, brittle-boned Mr. Glass and Bruce Willis’ good guy strong man David Dunn from Unbreakable, and they have to fight their way out. Bringing the three characters together and fully linking the two films is the primary reason Glass has so much hype and that hype ensures a strong opening weekend, despite early reviews that suggest Shyamalan has missed the mark.
Currently, Glass sits at 42% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes but reviews will be a non-factor, at least on opening weekend. Venom came in at 28% rotten but it broke October records with an $80 million opening, making a case that sometimes critics aren’t in line with the tastes of casual moviegoers. To a lesser extent, Bohemian Rhapsody also defied mixed reviews with a 62% fresh rating and is on its way to $200 million at the domestic box office and has been a key awards season player. When audiences are hyped for a project, they’ll come in droves and judge the end result for themselves.
Glass cost $20 million to make and was completely financed by Shyamalan. This is clearly a passion project and it’s going to pay off. Even if it comes in at the lower end of tracking with $50 million over four days, the film is going to be a hit no matter how you spin it, especially when international grosses come into play. Glass is the lone new wide release this weekend and it’s going to hog pretty much all the attention at the box office. I’m predicting about $65-70 million over the MLK weekend.
