How <em>The Sixth Sense</em> Conquered Hollywood in 1999
M. Night Shyamalan’s ghost story was an unlikely box-office success 20 years ago—but a movie like it could happen again today.
In 1999, a creatively fertile year for Hollywood, the most successful movie was an obvious one: Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace. It came out in May, broke opening-day records, and behaved exactly as a brand-name summer sensation would today. The second most successful film of 1999 was an old-fashioned ghost story from a largely unknown Indian American director. The movie came out in August (then viewed as the doldrums of the blockbuster season) and advertised itself with a poster that listed the five human senses and hinted at a sixth that involved a little boy and was, well, really spooky.
The story of ’s word-of-mouth triumph
