We still have six weeks or so to go until the end of 2018, but long range box office forecasting is suggesting that M Night Shyamalan’s Glass could be the first big film of the new year.
Set for release on January 18, the thriller that will dovetail as a sequel to both 2016’s Split and 2000’s Unbreakable is tracking to possibly gross anywhere between $60 and $80 million its opening weekend and total domestic box office gross of $180 million. Remember that this is early tracking and it is probable that these numbers will change. If advance critical buzz is positive, I would certainly expect these numbers to climb higher.
In certain sections of genre fandom, anticipation is running high for Glass. Unbreakable was a big hit for Shyamalan, and one that fueled a number of conversations among genre fans over the last 18 years as to how the story of Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson’s characters could continue. Those conversations kicked into high gear in 2016 when the last moments of Shymalan’s Split revealed that the story was taking place in the same world as Unbreakable did and James McAvoy’s Beast was destined to be on a collision course with Willis’ David Dunn and Jackson’s Mr. Glass. Split opened with a strong $40 million weekend in January 2016, and ended its run with $138.3 million, partly earned from fans who had heard about the twist reveal at the end of the film. With no other big genre competition at the box office until the February 13 release of Alita: Battle Angel, Glass certainly has room to stretch its legs.
