How The "Next Spielberg" Label Nearly Derailed M. Night Shyamalan's Career

While being called “the next Spielberg” sounds like the ultimate compliment, for M. Night Shyamalan, it was a burden that hurt his career. While many fans believe the first M. Night Shyamalan movie was The Sixth Sense, this 1999 smash was actually his third. He had previously helmed two little seen dramas: Praying with Anger (1992) and Wide Awake.

The Sixth Sense was a critical and commercial phenomenon and established a few directorial trademarks, like the classic M. Night twist ending. For about five years, Shyamalan could do no wrong, writing and directing more well-received hits like Unbreakable and Signs.

However, a tepid reaction to his 2004 mystery thriller The Village and its ending caused some of that hype to die down. From there, the response to most of his follow-up projects went from bad to worse. By the time the 2013 blockbuster After Earth arrived, critics and audiences had begun to write Shyamalan off.

That makes Shyamalan’s comeback in the past decade with hits like Old all the more impressive. The filmmaker now admits his move into blockbuster terrority was an error, but in hindsight, the Newsweek headline declaring M. Night Shyamalan as the next Steven Spielberg marked the beginning of his career fluctuations.

Being Labeled “The Next Spielberg” Sent M. Night Shyamalan In The Wrong Direction

Over the course of his 50 year plus career, Spielberg has had his share of misses, like Hook. In his prime, there was no filmmaker more tapped into the pulse of moviegoers like Spielberg. It’s no accident that he helmed some of the greatest blockbusters ever, including Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park.

Spielberg’s deft touch with emotion, tone and action is nearly unparalleled too. While they overlap in some ways, Spielberg and Shyamalan are very different directors. Shyamalan has never made a populist hit on the level of a Raiders of the Lost Ark, and his tastes lean towards darker, more off-kilter material.

That’s why, even though it was intended as a compliment, calling Shyamalan the next Spielberg was hugely unfair. This Newsweek headline arrived in time for Signs in 2002, which was being positioned as M. Night’s creepy take on Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

While critics complained about the ending – and the flawed logic behind the central alien invasion – it was a genuine hit, grossing over $400 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). This, in turn, put pressure on Shyamalan to live up to the Spielberg mantle. He steered into the Spielberg comparisons, deciding each movie needed to up the scale and scope.

M. Night Shyamalan’s Blockbuster Run Hurt His Career

Mark Wahlberg talking to a plant in The Happening.

The Village was Shyamalan’s follow-up to Signs, and while a solid hit (and a film that has its admirers), it lacked the energy and freshness of his previous work. His next project sent him down a decade-long rabbit hole, though Lady in the Water was a key film for Shyamalan in several ways.

This bizarre fantasy fable was based on a story M. Night told to his own children, and he famously took it away from Disney (his home base on hits like Signs) as he was heartbroken they didn’t fully believe in the concept. Ultimately, the issues Disney had with Lady in the Water were the same criticisms that viewers had.

It’s got a great cast and is handsomely mounted, but it’s also an unfocused slog. It never gels tonally, and Shyamalan casting himself as a genius writer whose work changes the world was… maybe not the best look. Lady in the Water just about clawed its $70 million budget back, and stands at 25% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Shyamalan decided to make a gory, crowd-pleasing horror next with The Happening, where Mother Nature herself is the villain. Despite some eerie visuals and memorable gore, the intentionally stilted acting and anticlimactic ending resulted in The Happening receiving even worse reviews than Lady in the Water.

According to a 2024 profile in The Atlantic, Shyamalan then entered his “hired gun” phase with The Last Airbender and After Earth. An adaptation of a hugely popular anime and a star vehicle for Will Smith respectively, they should have cemented Shyamalan as the new Spielberg in the minds of studios and audiences.

Instead, the financial and critical reception to both highlighted one clear fact: M. Night Shyamalan is no Steven Spielberg. The Last Airbender is a strong contender for worst blockbuster of the 2010s, and is marred with bad acting, lackluster direction and action sequences that fail to excite.

After Earth has intriguing concepts, but the project was really Will Smith’s baby, with Shyamalan being a hired hand. As M. Night later stated to The Atlantic, when it comes to working from other people’s ideas: “I’m so bad at it, and I felt so empty.”

M. Night Shyamalan’s Return To His Horror Roots Restored His Reputation

Josh Hartnett standing in a crowd at a concert in Trap movie.

In 2010, the trailer for horror thriller Devil bore Shyamalan’s name as producer, with the preview famously receiving laughs when his name came onscreen. A solid decade of critical and commercial decline had made Shyamalan’s name a punchline, and the “next Spielberg” tag was proven very wrong.

M. Night has since confessed that blockbusters were never a good fit for his style, so following After Earth, Shyamalan went back to his roots. He self-financed 2015’s The Visit, a creepy and witty found footage horror flick. The film was well-received by audiences and critics and was a comfortable hit.

Shyamalan has been on a hot streak ever since, self-financing modest-sized thrillers like his Unbreakable sequel Split and Trap. The writer and director is now focused only on projects that speak to him, and the self-financing element means he’s gambling on his own talent each time out.

M. Night Shyamalan has now fully broken out of the “next Spielberg” label and the fallout of chasing blockbuster success. He’s embraced his own style and interests, and long may it continue.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Rotten Tomatoes, The Atlantic