The rise and fall (and rise) of M. Night Shyamalan's career in one chart

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mel gibson signs

Buena Vista Pictures

"Signs."

It's a little hard to remember, but M. Night Shyamalan was once supposed to be the Second Coming in Hollywood.

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The writer and director, who's influenced as much by Alfred Hitchcock as Steven Spielberg, broke out young with his second feature in 1999, "The Sixth Sense," a box-office hit with a genuinely shocking twist ending that had everyone talking about it - and executives more than willing to bankroll his next creative whim.

After solid reception to "Unbreakable" and "Signs," Shyamalan hit rocky points, from the head-scratching response to modern fairy tale "Lady in the Water" to flat-out disdain for the gimmicks of "The Village" and "The Happening."

But his career has rebounded with relatively low-budget returns to the thriller territory that has been so fertile for him. After "The Visit" proved a horror hit in 2015, his new thriller "Split," starring James McAvoy as a troubled man with multiple personalities who kidnaps three girls, has turned into a box-office sensation of early 2017, staying at No. 1 for two weeks.

"Split" has already outdone the domestic box-office gross for several of Shyamalan's previous features, and is on its way to hitting numbers closer to his early blockbusters.

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See the chart below to see how Shyamalan's movie career took off, nosedived, and made a comeback at the box office*:

The Career of M. Night Shyamalan in box office gross

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

*Note: Budgets for the movies vary significantly, so box-office revenue alone does not determine success, though it's a useful indicator.

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