M. Night Shyamalan says studio was too afraid to market Unbreakable as a comic-book movie

After the massive success of The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan released Unbreakable, a thriller that is now regarded by many as one of the best comic-book movies ever made. However, at the time of its release, the studio was too afraid to market it as such.

While speaking with GQ, Shyamalan reflected on the studio’s choice to market Unbreakable as another horror/thriller rather than the comic-book movie it clearly was. “If you deny what it is because you’re afraid of it being different, then you’re stealing all of its strength,” Shyamalan said. “They were like, ‘We had one of the biggest movies of all time and the same two people are making another movie. Let’s make it look like that movie.’ As opposed to what it was, which was the beginning of an entire genre. They didn’t realize it because they were too scared to say the words ‘comic book.’“

Shyamalan recalled the studio believing that no one would want to see a movie about a comic book. “In my mind, it was a movie that was, ‘The guy is in a crash, an accident where everyone dies except him, and he doesn’t have a scratch on him, and someone says, ‘I know why that happened. You’re a real-life superhero,’” he said. “That’s the movie, but that was never said or sold.“

Although Unbreakable was a success, it didn’t quite reach the same heights as The Sixth Sense, which Shyamalan believes was due to the marketing. “Other people were coming and going, ‘That wasn’t scary,’” Shyamalan said. “And I was like, ‘Who said it was going to be that? Who said it was going to be scary?’ And so, [I learned] a really interesting lesson about, if I am going to be the purveyor of original stories for my life, I have to get partners that understand that we’re going to reinvent every single time, and we should celebrate that.” The film would go on to develop a large cult following and even spawned two sequels years later, Split and Glass.

Trap, the director’s latest film, is now playing in theaters, and in true Shyamalan tradition, it’s received some rather divisive reviews. Our own Tyler Nichols wasn’t a big fan, although he did find a few elements to enjoy. “Despite my negativity in this review, I didn’t outright hate Trap,” Nichols wrote. “The performances from both Hartnett and Pill are worth the price of admission. I could watch those two act in an empty room and be entertained. I’m just sick of Shyamalan creating these great concepts and being so incapable of sticking the landing. For every great moment in Trap, there’s an illogical one that feels like it was written by a teenager. Unless something changes, I think I may be done with Shyamalan in the theater.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.

Would Unbreakable have been more successful if it were marketed as a comic-book movie from day one?