The film was a commercial success, grossing over $672 million worldwide, becoming thesecond-highest-grossing film of 1999 and Shyamalan's highest-grossing film to date.
InPhiladelphia, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe is at home with his wife Anna. Suddenly, Vincent Grey, a former patient he had treated years ago, breaks into their house. Vincent accuses Malcolm of failing him before shooting Malcolm and then himself.
Months later, Malcolm has begun working with Cole Sear, a nine-year-old boy who reminds him of Vincent. He feels he must help Cole in order to rectify his own failure to help Vincent and to reconcile with Anna, who has become cold and distant towards him. Lynn worries about her son Cole, especially after seeing mysterious signs of physical harm.
At a birthday party, when bullies see that Cole is scared of a cupboard, they lock him in it, causing him to scream in terror about someone seemingly inside with him. Once released, he faints and appears to have been physically assaulted, which his mother attributes to the bullies. Following this, Cole confides to Malcolm that he sees dead people.
Malcolm believes Cole isschizophrenic and considers dropping his case. However, after listening to an audiotape from a session with Vincent, he hears a man begging for help in Spanish when Vincent was supposed to be alone in the room, suggesting that he had the same ability. Malcolm realizes that Cole is telling the truth, so suggests that he try to communicate with the ghosts and help them in order to overcome his fears.
One night, Cole finds Kyra Collins, a female child ghost, vomiting. He works out who she is and goes with Malcolm to the funeral reception at her home, where she recently died after a long illness. In her room, Kyra guides Cole to a videotape that he gives to her father. The tape reveals that her mother poisoned her food, alerting her father to the cause of her death and saving her younger sister.
Cole is given a lead part in his school play. He is coached by a ghostly director and gives his performance with Malcolm looking on. Before leaving, Cole suggests that Malcolm try speaking to Anna while she is asleep, so she can hear his thoughts and feelings.
Cole tells Lynn his secret. When she does not believe him, he tells her that his deceased grandmother visits him and describes details from his mother's childhood that he could not have known. Shocked, Lynn believes him.
Malcolm returns home to find his wedding video playing and Anna talking in her sleep, asking him why he left her. She drops his wedding ring, and he notices that it is not on his finger. Recalling what Cole told him about dead people only seeing what they want to see, Malcolm locates his gunshot injury, and he realizes that he did not survive being shot by Vincent.
Malcolm has been dead the entire time while working with Cole. Coming to terms with the fact that he is a ghost, he lets Anna know that he had to help someone. Malcolm tells her that she was never second to anything and that he loves her. Anna's face relaxes indicating she is at peace and can move on, so Malcolm's spirit departs in a flash of light.
David Vogel, then-president of production ofWalt Disney Studios, read M. Night Shyamalan'sspec script and loved it. Without obtaining corporate approval, Vogel bought the rights, despite the price of $3 million and the stipulation that Shyamalan could direct the film.[5] Disney dismissed Vogel from his position at the studio, and Vogel left the company shortly thereafter.[6] Disney sold the production rights toSpyglass Entertainment, while retaining the distribution rights and 12.5% of the film's box office takings.[7]
During the casting process for the role of Cole Sear, Shyamalan had been apprehensive about Haley Joel Osment's video audition, saying later he was "this really sweet cherub, kind of beautiful, blond boy". Shyamalan saw the role as darker and more brooding but felt that Osment "nailed it with the vulnerability and the need ... He was able to convey a need as a human being in a way that was amazing to see."[8]
Bruce Willis was cast in the role of Malcolm Crowe as part of a deal to compensate the studio for Willis's role in the implosion ofBroadway Brawler the year before.[9][10]
The color red is absent from most of the film, but it is used prominently in a few isolated shots for "anything in the real world that has been tainted by the other world"[14] and "to connote really explosively emotional moments and situations".[15] Examples include the door of the church where Cole seeks sanctuary; the balloon, carpet, and Cole's sweater at the birthday party; the tent in which he first encounters Kyra; the volume numbers on Crowe's tape recorder; the doorknob on the locked basement door where Malcolm's office is located; the shirt that Anna wears at the restaurant; Kyra's mother's dress at the wake; and the shawl wrapped around the sleeping Anna.[14]
All the clothes Malcolm wears are items he wore or touched the evening before his death, including his overcoat, his blue rowing sweatshirt and the different layers of his suit. Though the filmmakers were careful about clues of Malcolm's true state, the camera zooms slowly towards his face when Cole says, "I see dead people." The filmmakers initially feared this would be too much of a giveaway, but left it in.[16]
After a six-month online promotion campaign,[19]The Sixth Sense was released onVHS andDVD byHollywood Pictures Home Video on March 28, 2000. It went on to become the top-selling DVD of 2000, with more than 2.5 million units shipped, and the all-time second best-selling DVD title up until then, as well as the topvideo rental title of all-time.[20] The film generated at least$173,320,000 (equivalent to $316,000,000 in 2024) from the US home video market,[21] including$125,850,000 (equivalent to $230,000,000 in 2024) from VHS rentals in the US.[22]
In the United Kingdom, it was the third-most-watched film of 2003 on television, with9 million viewers that year.[23]
The Sixth Sense had a production budget of approximately $40 million (plus $25 million for prints and advertising). During its opening weekend, the film grossed $26.6 million, making it the largest August opening weekend, surpassingThe Fugitive (1993).[26] It would go on to hold this record for two years until it was overtaken byRush Hour 2 in 2001.[27] The film spent five weeks as thenumber 1 film at the U.S. box office, becoming only the second film, afterTitanic (1997), to have grossed more than $20 million each for five weekends.[1][28] With a total gross of $29.2 million,The Sixth Sense set the record for having the largest Labor Day weekend gross until 2007 when it was surpassed byHalloween.[29] DuringLabor Day, it made $6.3 million, making it the biggest September Monday gross, holding that record until it was beaten byIt in 2017.[30] It grossed $293,506,292 in the United States and Canada, surpassingThe Empire Strikes Back as the tenth highest grossing film of all time in that market at the time.[31]Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 57.5 million tickets in the US and Canada.[32]
In Europe, the film sold 37,124,510 tickets at the box office.[33] In the United Kingdom, it was given at first a limited release on nine screens, and entered at number 8 at the UK box office before climbing up tonumber one the following week with 430 theatres playing the film.[34][35] It had a record opening in the Netherlands.[36] It had a worldwide gross of $672,806,292, ranking it ninth on the list of worldwide box-office money earners at the time.[31][37]
The Sixth Sense received critical acclaim, with Osment's performance receiving high praise in particular.[38] On thereview aggregator website,Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on reviews from 166 critics, with an average rating of 7.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "M. Night Shyamalan'sThe Sixth Sense is a twisty ghost story with all the style of a classical Hollywood picture, but all the chills of a modernhorror flick."[39]Metacritic rated it 64 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, meaning "generally favorable reviews".[40] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[41]
Roger Ebert awarded the film a 3 out of 4-star rating and was particularly impressed by Osment's performance, writing: "Haley Joel Osment, his young co-star, is a very good actor in a film where his character possibly has more lines than anyone else. He's in most of the scenes, and he has to act in them–this isn't a role for a cute kid who can stand there and look solemn in reaction shots. There are fairly involved dialogue passages between Willis and Osment that require good timing, reactions and the ability to listen. Osment is more than equal to them. And although the tendency is to notice how good he is, not every adult actor can play heavy dramatic scenes with a kid and not seem to condescend (or, even worse, to be subtly coaching and leading him). Willis can. Those scenes give the movie its weight and make it as convincing as, under the circumstances, it can possibly be."[42]
In his review for theLos Angeles Times, John Anderson wrote that the script was "clever" and called Osment's performance the best of the year from a child actor.[43]Stephen Hunter ofThe Washington Post said the film was a "maximum creep-out."[44]
^Hill, Logan (December 2, 2004)."Unfortunate Son".New York Magazine.Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. RetrievedJuly 26, 2021.
^abShyamalan, M. Night (director) (2000).The Sixth Sense(DVD) ("Rules and Clues" featurette). Hollywood Pictures Home Video. RetrievedDecember 20, 2023.
^Mendel, Barry (producer) (2000).The Sixth Sense(DVD) ("Rules and Clues" featurette). Hollywood Pictures Home Video. RetrievedDecember 20, 2023.
^Marshall, Frank (producer) (2000).The Sixth Sense(DVD) ("Rules and Clues" featurette). Hollywood Pictures Home Video. RetrievedDecember 20, 2023.
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