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Shyamalan Gives Bruce Willis His Biggest American Hit

A P Kamath

As Manoj Night Shyamalan's psychological chiller, The Sixth Sense grossed $  11.2 million last weekend and took its cumulative to $ 213.3 million, the modestly budgeted film became Bruce Willis's biggest hit in America.

Shyamalan's $ 40 million unearthly drama beat the $ 210 million grossed by Willis' 1998 space drama, Armageddon, which cost more than $ 120 million. Now the question is if The Sixth Sense, which began its overseas run with a solid $ 1 million grossed in Hong Kong in its first week, could vanquish the $ 300 million Armageddon has made overseas.

The Sixth Sense was bought last week by ABC for $ 35 million, which Hollywood insiders describe as a fabulous price. The only film that could beat the deal this year would be George Lucas's The Phantom Menace which is expected to fetch an out-of-this-earth $ 70 million, according to the trade publication, Variety.

Phantom, made for $ 110 million, has made $ 425 million in theaters; it has also sold merchandise worth $ 600 million. The Sixth Sense has no tie-ins, though reports from Hollywood say that computer games based on the movie, are being developed.

Other hits of 1999 including The Spy Who Shagged Me ($ 205 million gross), Runaway Bride ($ 150 million) andNotting Hill ($ 115 million) are expected to get between $ 20 and $ 25 million for their television rights.

Meanwhile, The Sixth Sense, which was the top film in America for five weeks, is now the third highest grossing film of the week. While Blue Streak, starring Martin Lawrence, grossed $ 19.2 million last weekend, and For Love of the Game, starring Kevin Costner, fetched an anemic $ 3 million, Shyamalan's eerie drama grabbed $ 11.2 million.

"It could end its American run with about $ 260 million," says Gitesh Pandya of Boxoffice Guru. "And it is expected to have a huge video sale."

One of the remarkable aspects of the film's sustained success is that it was released without hype or publicity. While it is true that Disney, the movie's distributor, had the courage to push up its release into mid summer from October, it did not organize costly junkets for journalists. It also did not send Willis scurrying across America to promote the film.

"The success of this film is largely due to the word-of-mouth endorsement it has received by psyched fans," says Ric Ornellas, film-writer and a former editor at The Washington Square News.

"The fans are so much in love with this film that they won't discuss its surprise ending with their friends or loved ones," he added. "This film has a huge base of strong supporters -- and they are going to be there too when the video version goes on sale."

Trade sources expect at least five million video copies of The Sixth Sense to sell in America. That would be at least another $ 100 million in revenue.

With this, Shyamalan has given to Disney and his producers one of the most profitable films in recent history.

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