His career illustrates one of the stubborn paradoxes of Hollywood: the film industry loves the myth of the auteur, the rugged individual filmmaker who plays by his own rules, until faced with the reality. Around the time that “The Sixth Sense” was released, this was a particularly potent idea, as studios tried to build brands around star directors like Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski brothers (who made “The Matrix”), hoping their names would sell movies the way Hitchcock’s once did.

Image The filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan at his home, which he set up far from Los Angeles, in Malvern, Pa. Credit... Twentieth Century Fox, via Reuters

But the studios also need to heed the brutal realities of the movie business. All of these directors have had high-profile stumbles that suggest moviegoers care more about what is on the screen than what is above the title. And unlike animated brands like Shrek, real-life characters like Mr. Shyamalan can prove difficult to work with.

“It never really worked,” argues David Weitzner, the former head of worldwide marketing for Universal and an adjunct professor at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. “It’s pomposity on the part of studios to think that the public is going to respond to an advertising message that says to see the film because it’s from the director of another film. It’s stupid and to some degree, it’s fueled by ego.”

Even given their limited success with marketing brands, studio marketing departments continue to use the method to sell films. “They’re marketing anything they can find to market because we’re living in a time where it’s so competitive and difficult,” said Michael Taylor, chairman of the film and television production division at the School of Cinematic Arts.

Mr. Shyamalan, who will get his name above the title for “The Happening,” still believes that a director’s name on the marquee  one that is not Steven Spielberg’s  can sell a blockbuster as easily as a star’s can.

“The problem is the assumption that if I am selling the movie  because I’m selling me  that I’m being egotistical. If Will Smith did the same thing, it would be perceived very differently,” he said. “You’re supposed to be hidden if you’re a director. That’s a rule that who said in the movie business?”

Born in India, Mr. Shyamalan was raised in suburban Philadelphia by his parents, both doctors who knew little about the film industry. He attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, then made two commercially unsuccessful films, “Praying With Anger” (1992) and “Wide Awake” (1998), before selling his screenplay for “The Sixth Sense” to Disney for $3 million. The movie, made for about $40 million, grossed more than $600 million worldwide.