Two of M. Night Shyamalan’s films recently dropped onto Netflix. His 2016 outing, Split, earned some praise from critics. After a string of disasters, James McAvoy’s long-form acting exercise seemed like a return to form for the long-suffering director. It ended with a perplexing tie-in to his 2000 classic, Unbreakable, which paid off in Glass. Though Split enjoyed unexpected positive attention, Glass is currently in the Netflix spotlight. The star-studded 2019 pseudo-superhero movie currently holds ninth place on Netflix’s worldwide charts.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass Can’t Contain Its Netflix Success
It’s easy to marvel at Shyamalan’s legendary drop in quality after his first two features. It’s harder to watch him retroactively ruin one of his best contributions by tying it to Glass. Unbreakable is an inarguable masterpiece. It was ahead of its time, demonstrating a level of foresight and execution that few could match. If Unbreakable dropped in 2019, squarely in the onslaught of superhero fatigue, it would have changed everything. Instead, M. Night Shyamalan dragged Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson into roles they nailed almost two decades earlier to waste their time on a far inferior script. It felt like a snap decision at the time, but Split developed from a scrapped idea intended for an Unbreakable sequel. The idea of an Unbreakable trilogy floated around for years, but poor box office performance kept it at bay. Glass proves they should have listened to their instincts.
Glass is terrible, but no mystery surrounds Shyamalan’s current Netflix success. The film boasts Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, and Anya Taylor-Joy in its cast. That star power practically guarantees attention, despite a subpar package. Glass earned a whopping $247 million on a slim $20 million budget. It looks as cheap as it is, but the stars likely took most of the budget as their salaries. It boasted an impressive 53% second-weekend drop, but it remains the third-highest box office take of Shyamalan’s career. Rotten Tomatoes branded the film with a 36% positive rating from 404 reviews. The film owes most of its current success to European Netflix viewers, but its popularity is widespread. The United States rarely determines the streamer’s international metrics, but we placed the film in eighth place nationally. Croatian and Latvian viewers placed it in second and third, respectively.
Glass is far from Shyamalan’s worst film but may be his least interesting. It’s an astonishingly boring, cheap, and pointless affair. Its mishandling of Unbreakable is frustrating, but a shlocky superhero follow-up could have at least been fun. Glass has nothing to offer beyond familiar faces. Shyamalan has repeatedly assured the world he has no interest in a fourth film in this franchise. He moved on quickly. Old and Knock at the Cabin are, at least, strange enough to be interesting. Glass draws eyes, but millions of Netflix viewers will discover nothing behind it.
