Box office 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, surpassing
The Fugitive (1993). It would go on to hold this record for two years until it was overtaken by
Rush Hour 2 in 2001. The film spent five weeks as the
number 1 film at the U.S. box office, becoming only the second film, after
Titanic (1997), to have grossed more than $20 million each for five weekends. 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 by
Halloween. During
Labor Day, it made $6.3 million, making it the biggest September Monday gross, holding that record until it was beaten by
It in 2017. It grossed $293,506,292 in the United States and Canada, surpassing
The Empire Strikes Back as the tenth highest grossing film of all time in that market at the time.
Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 57.5 million tickets in the US and Canada. In Europe, the film sold 37,124,510 tickets at the box office. 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 to
number one the following week with 430 theatres playing the film. It had a record opening in the Netherlands. It had a worldwide gross of $672,806,292, ranking it ninth on the list of worldwide box-office money earners at the time.
Critical response The Sixth Sense received critical acclaim, with Osment's performance receiving high praise in particular. On the
review 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's
The Sixth Sense is a twisty ghost story with all the style of a classical Hollywood picture, but all the chills of a modern
horror flick."
Metacritic rated it 64 out of 100 based on 35 reviews, meaning "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
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."
Jeff Millar of the
Houston Chronicle stated that "there's more fright in any 10 minutes of
The Sixth Sense than the sensory startle effects
The Haunting produces in its entire running time." In his review for the
Los Angeles Times, John Anderson wrote that the script was "clever" and called Osment's performance the best of the year from a child actor.
Stephen Hunter of
The Washington Post said the film was a "maximum creep-out." By vote of the members of the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America,
The Sixth Sense was awarded the
Nebula Award for Best Script during 1999. == Accolades ==