James McAvoy said his 2017 thriller Split is the only movie in his career that still pays him consistent residuals, and he credited director M. Night Shyamalan for setting up the film’s financial success. McAvoy discussed the payments on Thursday’s episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast.
The actor, who played a character with 24 personalities in the film, said Split generates the sole ongoing stream of residual income from his movie work. He said other projects have brought in minimal or no residuals by comparison.
What McAvoy Said About Split’s Residuals
McAvoy laid out the numbers behind the film’s quick profitability. “It was made for $6 million or something like that. I’d say they spent $30 [million] advertising it.
Our first weekend, we made $40 [million], so we made profit. Our first residuals check came at the end of the first weekend,” he said on the podcast.
Those figures mean Split’s combined production and marketing costs totaled around $36 million, a number the film’s reported $40 million opening weekend take cleared within its first three days in theaters.
What It Means For Fans
McAvoy credited Shyamalan directly for the ongoing payments, calling the director “super smart” for how he structured the film’s success. The actor said Split’s residual checks remain his only consistent source of movie income, a detail that stands out given how much other work actors take on between films.
For fans following the Split franchise, McAvoy’s comments add a financial footnote to a film that built its reputation on his multi-character performance opposite Anya Taylor-Joy. The movie became one of Shyamalan’s defining commercial hits of the 2010s on the strength of that opening weekend.
Background On Split
Split arrived in theaters in 2017 as part of Shyamalan’s run of lower-budget, high-concept thrillers. McAvoy’s performance as a man with dissociative identity disorder drew attention to the film beyond its box office numbers, and the production’s modest $6 million budget against its opening weekend haul made it a notable profit story in its own right, according to McAvoy’s account on the podcast.
What’s Next
McAvoy did not say on the podcast whether the Split residual payments remain active as of the October 2026 interview, nor did he detail the specific financial arrangement Shyamalan put in place. Those specifics were not addressed in the “Happy Sad Confused” conversation.
McAvoy’s remarks come as Shyamalan’s X-Men-adjacent universe continues to draw interest from fans tracking the franchise’s broader cast moves, including recent casting news surrounding Christopher Abbott’s Professor X role and Asa Germann’s casting as Angel in Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot.
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