Well, looks like M. Night Shyamalan is officially over that “laughing stock” phase of his career. After getting a second-place opening and reasonable reviews for 2015’s The Visit, the writer-director who also made After Earth and The Last Airbender just hit #1 with his new, shockingly well-received thriller. Over the weekend, Split debuted with the fourth-largest January opening of all time, making over $40 million on a slim, $10 million budget. Shyamalan: a joke no longer! Even if this part from The Happening is still definitely all-the-way hilarious:
Vin Diesel’s long-awaited(?) reprise of the xXx character(?), meanwhile, was not so successful. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage opened in second, bringing in a lackluster $20 million on a reported $85 million budget. It would seem this sequel just missed the mark—that mark being a xXx/Fast crossover in which Vin’s Dom meets Vin’s Xander, and then they either fight or embrace. Please hit that mark next time. That is a mark we all want to see hit by matching sets of Vin-fists.
