10 Directors Who Survived Huge Movie Failures

M. Night Shyamalan has had many colossal movie failures and you could argue that any of them deserve a spot on this list (The Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender), but the enormity of After Earth's complete and utter implosion is perhaps his greatest defeat to date.

For one thing, the Will Smith sci-fi vehicle not only further destroyed Shyamalan's reputation, but it pretty much put an end to Jaden Smith's Hollywood acting career, which was looking genuinely promising after Pursuit of Happyness and Karate Kid.

Plus, the movie couldn't even double its $130 million production budget, a huge financial loss for Sony, and a staggeringly low 11% Rotten Tomatoes score also didn't help its optics. It was a flat-out embarrassing result for everyone involved, but because Will Smith is pretty much impervious to failure, Shyamalan - even with his name absent from the marketing - took the biggest hit.

He really was at the bottom of the barrel and it was hard to imagine any studio trusting him with a big budget - or even a major release - ever again, but luckily for him, Blumhouse Productions came to the rescue and offered him a chance at redemption.

2015's The Visit cost just $5 million to make, nothing when compared to the blockbuster budgets of After Earth and The Last Airbender. As a result, its bar for success was lower, and its modest $98 million haul was a major win for a director who desperately needed one. And not only that, but the movie itself was genuinely great, easily Shyamalan's best work in years.

Combine that with 2017's Split - an even better film than The Visit - and the bitter memory of After Earth soon began to fade.