James McAvoy has starred in films like “Speak No Evil,” “Atonement” and “X-Men: First Class,” but he recently revealed that the “only” movie he still regularly receives residuals from is M. Night Shyamalan’s 2016 horror, “Split.”
“You get a few hundred-pound checks here or sometimes you get twenty-five-cent checks and you’re like, ‘It literally costs more to publish this than it does to cash it,'” McAvoy said during a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “But the only one that really pays me regularly is ‘Split’.”
“I think it was made for like $6 million or something? And let’s say they spent $30 on advertising. Our first weekend we made 40, so we made a profit,” McAvoy continued. “Our first residual check came at the end of the first weekend. It was crazy.”
In “Split”, three girls are kidnapped by a man diagnosed with 23 distinct personalities (McAvoy). “They must attempt to escape before the apparent emergence of a frightening new 24,” according to the film’s official description. Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula starred alongside McAvoy. The film, which cost just $6 million to make, grossed $138.29 million domestically and $140.16 million internationally, for a total of $278.45 million worldwide.
McAvoy also spoke about Shyamalan and his experience working with the director.
“I very consciously took my cues from a lot of directors I’ve worked with, and subconsciously as well, but what I took from him was his preparation,” McAvoy said. “He made that movie, as well as (the sequel) ‘Glass,’ on incredibly modest budgets, and he was very focused on how he was going to maximize his day, maximize his shots and maximize what he got out of the story by just being incredibly well prepared and being able to share that and communicate that with the team.”
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