15 Years Ago, Martin Scorsese Went Full Horror & Scored One Of His Biggest Box Office Hits

(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)

“I just thought, I love gothics, let’s have a little fun. Let’s do a gothic.” Those are the words of author Dennis Lehane speaking about what inspired him to write “Shutter Island,” his acclaimed novel that would ultimately be adapted for the screen in 2010 by Martin Scorsese, arguably our greatest living filmmaker. Lehane, speaking on a featurette for the film’s Blu-ray release titled “Behind the Shutters,” explained that he was trying to reckon with the state of the world in the early 2000s and decided to tell a tale set in 1954 at the height of McCarthyism.

Inspired by classics such as “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers,” he set out to write a story with a “completely unreliable narrator.” Published in 2003, the rights to the book were quickly snatched up by Columbia Pictures before they lapsed and were then sold to Phoenix Pictures. That’s when Scorsese and his frequent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio got involved. Coming off of the success of the Best-Picture winning “The Departed,” it proved to be a very wise decision, as “Shutter Island” still ranks as one of the legendary director’s biggest hits.

In this week’s Tales from the Box Office, we’re looking back at “Shutter Island” 15 years later. We’ll go over how the movie came to be, how the big twist ending impacted the production, what happened when it reached theaters, what happened in the aftermath of its release, and what lessons we can learn from it all these years later. Let’s dig in, shall we?

“Shutter Island” centers on Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio), a U.S. Marshal who travels to an asylum for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. However, what begins as a routine investigation into the inexplicable disappearance of a patient at the facility takes a sinister turn as the story unfolds and the mystery deepens. Along the way, Teddy and his partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) uncover increasingly bizarre truths about the island, culminating in the film’s final shocking reveal.

“I had been working on some other projects of my own, and they weren’t ready,” said Scorsese, explaining how he got involved with the film in the “Behind the Shutters” featurette. “The script was sent to me. I knew, of course, of the novelist Dennis Lehane […] but I didn’t know anything about the story. I started reading it around 10:30 at night. I had to go to sleep because I had to get up the next day to do something early in the morning, but I found I couldn’t put the script down.”

Scorsese, by that time, had already cemented his legacy, with “The Departed” finally securing him both a sorely deserved Best Picture and Best Director Oscar. Though Scorsese is a noted fan of horror movies, he hadn’t dabbled much with the genre during his illustrious filmmaking career, save for arguably “Cape Fear.” To date, “Shutter Island,” though generally described as a psychological thriller, is by far Scorsese’s most overt wading into the waters of horror. It was a departure, to be certain.

Scorsese and DiCaprio had already collaborated several times at this point, dating back to 2002’s “Gangs of New York.” But if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. DiCaprio was at the height of his powers as a movie star at this point and he fully dedicated himself to the role of Teddy Daniels.

“You’re asking me questions I don’t even know the answers to, and I created him,” said Lehane, commenting on DiCaprio’s deep exploration of Teddy in that same featurette. “I kind of really wanted to make Teddy my own,” DiCaprio noted while discussing his approach to getting in character.

“Shutter Island” is a mystery box of a movie, and, for most of its runtime, the audience is led to believe DiCaprio’s character is trying to get to the bottom of it all. Spoilers, but we eventually find out that Teddy is a patient on the island and that all of the proceedings were an elaborate ruse to get him to come to terms with the horrible tragedy he suffered. Much like M. Night Shyamalan’s smash hit “The Sixth Sense,” Scorsese’s movie relied almost entirely on its twist ending.

“I found that the way the script was constructed, particularly the ending, which is somewhat different from the book, I think, but particularly the ending made it worthwhile for me,” Scorsese said of the twist ending in that same featurette. Laeta Kalogridis (“Alexander”) penned the adaptation of Lehane’s novel and, to Scorsese’s eye, delivered a satisfying conclusion.

Dr. James Gilligan, a psychiatric professor, served as an advisor on the film. Speaking on a Blu-ray featurette titled “Into the Lighthouse,” he shared that he appreciated the way the film portrayed what was happening with Teddy (unrealistic though it may be):

“It’s true that the movie departs significantly from literal reality in the sense of how I or any other psychiatrist would go about trying to treat people who were violent and mentally ill. But I felt that what Dennis Lehane and Martin Scorsese did was to find a way to express, kind of metaphorically, what was going on in the minds of the major characters.”

“We were really fortunate to have Dr. James Gilligan as our technical advisor,” Scorsese added in that same featurette. “His book on violence is a classic. He was not only an authority on it, but he also understood the nature of the telling of the story.”

Paramount Pictures distributed the film and marketed it largely by focusing on the fact that it was a twisted thrill ride — one that had one of cinema’s most beloved actors at its center and collaborating (again) with a master director. The studio and various financiers needed the film to resonate, what with “Shutter Island” having a hefty $80 million budget. Even by 2010 standards, that’s a lot of money for a non-franchise, adult-focused, R-rated thriller. Fortunately, it played very well for general audiences.

“Shutter Island” reached theaters on February 19, 2010. Both too late and too early for an awards season campaign, Paramount saw this as more of a popcorn entertainment, commercial play. Fortunately, it released the film at the perfect time as there was nothing by way of competition. Yes, James Cameron’s “Avatar” was on weekend 10 of its ridiculous, record-breaking box office run, but aside from that, Scorsese had a clear runway. His thriller topped the domestic charts with $41 million.

Only facing mild competition from Kevin Smith’s “Cop Out” and the remake of “The Crazies” on its second weekend, Scorsese’s movie was able to hold onto the top spot easily with a $22.6 million second weekend. Of course, its reign at the top ended the next weekend when Tim Burton’s eventual $1 billion hit “Alice in Wonderland” strolled into town. By then, however, it was clear the film was a success for Paramount.

All told, “Shutter Island” finished its run with $128 million domestically to go with $171.4 million overseas for a grand total of $299.4 million worldwide. That was even more than “The Departed” ($291 million), making it Scorsese’s biggest financial hit up to that point. He would then go on to top that record a few years later with “The Wolf of Wall Street” ($392 million), which remains his biggest movie ever.

Scorsese has helmed some of the greatest movies of all time, from “Raging Bull” to “Goodfellas” and everything in between. Again, the man was coming off of a Best Picture win. Yet, critics of the day were somewhat lukewarm on “Shutter Island.” It currently holds an okay-but-not-great 69% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s certainly not the be all, end all metric, but it helps paint a picture. At that time, many probably would have called the film “middling Scorsese.”

Because the movie earned no major awards love, it had to settle for being a pretty big moneymaker. There are worse things. But time has a funny way of shifting perspective. In 2020, to commemorate the film’s 10th anniversary, /Film’s Josh Spiegel wrote a piece declaring “Shutter Island” one of Scorsese’s “unsung masterpieces.” It’s a movie that time has been kind to, perhaps because it’s harder to simply get a film made for adults in theaters these days, in no small part due to the proliferation of streaming in the pandemic era.

As further evidence that the film’s profile grew beyond its initial reception, HBO once hatched plans to make a “Shutter Island” TV series, with Scorsese involved. That never materialized, but it speaks volumes about how this was more than just some here today, gone tomorrow horror-thriller. This was a damn fine Scorsese picture with a great lead performance and, depending on how you ask, a wild sucker-punch of an ending. What more could one ask for?

Looking back, “Shutter Island” is a nice reminder that sometimes a movie needs a little time to truly be appreciated. General audiences were certainly entertained by this one at the time, as evidenced by the healthy box office haul, but it didn’t feel like it got the downright respect a DiCaprio/Scorsese joint perhaps should have gotten, particularly one that was so successful on paper. That’s just the nature of the beast though.

“Shutter Island” is also a reminder that horror is and truly almost always has been a reliable crowd-pleaser. Scorsese put his stamp on the genre in his own way, and it paid off handsomely. There’s a reason he’s been nominated for more Best Director Oscars than any other living director. It’s remarkable that the whole thing began as a script he got while prepping other eventual projects, prompting him to say, “Yeah, let’s do it,” and turn it into a big hit. That’s just how good Scorsese is.

Will Scorsese ever return to horror, or anything horror-adjacent? Who knows. He’s not getting any younger, and he just lined up his next collaboration with DiCaprio (one that will also star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, amazingly enough). Whatever he does next and whoever he decides to do it with, we should know by now to trust him. Perhaps nothing demonstrates this better than a movie as good and successful as “Shutter Island” in any way being viewed as a mid-tier effort. Any other director would be so lucky. As for the rest of us? We’re just fortunate to have Scorsese.