M. Night Shyamalan’s horror apocalyptic film Knock at the Cabin is currently topping the domestic box office with a $14.2 million debut this weekend, according to Comscore. Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Abby Quinn, Kristen Cui, Rupert Grint, and Nikki Amuka-Bird lead the film that dethroned James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water from its 7-week run.
The psychological horror film opened in 3,643 theaters, and although it toppled the blockbuster Avatar film, it marks Shyamalan’s lowest North American debut. It is said that poor marketing and a little word of mouth are to blame. The movie received a ‘C’ from CinemaScore.
‘Knock At The Cabin’ Beats ‘Avatar 2’ At Domestic Theaters
In a recent tweet, M. Night Shyamalan expressed his gratitude to everyone who went to see the movie. The filmmaker also acknowledged James Cameron and called him a “hero”.
“Thank you to all who made @KnockAtTheCabin the number one film this weekend! I am pinching myself that this is the seventh time this has happened to me. This is the fourth in a row with @UniversalPics. Much love to James Cameron, he’s a hero to me. Glad to be in theaters with you”
Knock at the Cabin follows a married couple and their daughter held hostage in a cabin during their vacation. Dave Bautista leads the group of strangers who demand the family to sacrifice one of their members to stop the apocalypse.
While the victims are hesitant to sacrifice anyone, strange occurrences also happened, leading them to believe there is a hint of truth in the strangers’ words. Knock at the Cabin is written by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman. The director also produced the film alongside Marc Bienstock, Ashwin Rajan, Steven Schneider, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, and Ashley Fox.
It opened in 60 regions globally, which includes UK, Ireland, Mexico, France, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Brazil, among others. The international box office earned $7.0 million across 7,000 theaters.
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M. Night Shyamalan Shares Interesting Facts About ‘Knock At The Cabin’
In his interview with Collider, M. Night Shyamalan revealed details about the making of his latest project. He said it was based on a book, although they did not follow the source material, and he was editing the script until the last minute.
“I just finished Knock at the Cabin. I would say the three hours, four hours before I put my pencils down on Knock at the Cabin, I added one more line. I called an actor, and I was like, ‘Say this into your phone and send it to me right now. I have an idea.’ And I put it in. It was like, one last idea, and then they were like, ‘Pencils down. You can’t put another idea in it.’”
The filmmaker also revealed they used natural lighting for indoor scenes to make them organic, making the movie look as if shot on location.
“So we didn’t use any lights, there were no bounces, nothing. It’s just coming from the windows and the doors, and so [it is] a very naturalistic way to shoot on a stage. And it creates a very beautiful, difficult to expose to, difficult all of that stuff to work around.”
When asked about his upcoming projects, M. Night Shyamalan hinted that he always has ideas, and it takes him six to nine months to write about them. The filmmaker revealed he has three other movie ideas at the moment.
Knock at the Cabin is playing in theaters now.
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