'Paranormal Activity' To Expand Nationwide

We've been following the progress of Paranormal Activity, as our regular readers know. Sure, it's got a big studio behind it now, but you've got to pull for any good movie made for under $15,000, don't you? And yes, Paramount is making it a kind of cause celebre, but it still had to perform well in a dozen theaters first before it expanded this weekend, and now that it made about $500,000 this weekend in limited space, the studio is going wide with the movie on Friday the 9th. The film sold out every one of its midnight showings this weekend in 33 cities, and Paramount is now convinced that the movie deserves a big time release schedule. So here it is: Beginning next weekend, it'll be in over 40 markets and will be available at all showtimes, not just the gimmicky midnight-only showings it received in (I believe) most of the previous cities. That alone should open the door to substantially more money, as I had a friend comment recently, "Great movie...but midnight?" "The fans have spoken, and we are listening" said Paramount Pictures Vice Chairman Rob Moore when announcing the big push. This is all tied into something we've mentioned before, the Demand It promotion whereby the cities with the most passionate fans visiting the film's website will be award the movie in sequence. It seems to be working, and Paramount has a massive hit on its hands. How is that possible when the movie hasn't even made $1 million? No promotion costs, for one thing. For another, if the studio is indeed following the release pattern of hitting the markets where the film is in the highest demand, then it will have fewer empty seats (or none), meaning the theater rental costs aren't even a consideration, because they know it's going to play to packed houses. The film may never do Blair Witch numbers, but if it gets to $10 million this month based on what it cost to make and distribute the film, it's pure profit. But you should see it for another reason, specifically that it's very, very effective. Or at least, that's what one hack movie critic who works here says.

Comments

[dimajanation]

This was hands down the scariest movie ever. I don't scare easy at all when watching a potentially scary horror movie. This movie did its job. Very well done. Man...I just can't say enough how scary and creepy this movie is.

[Chad]

im looking forward to this actually, glad its getting its release and i can watch it