“Paranormal Activity,” the micro-budgeted film that has grossed $97 million to date in domestic box office, perplexed the Hollywood distribution community before emerging as an unlikely blockbuster.
“Early on, few distributors were interested at all — even after the film played to breathless praise at L.A.’s Screamfest in late ‘07, and again in early ‘08 at Slamdance,” says an “Entertainment Weekly” story by Missy Schwartz. “After the second festival, DreamWorks (then part of Paramount) made an offer, but the studio only wanted to buy the movie to remake it as a star vehicle.”
Eventually, the producers cinched a $350,000 sale to the DreamWorks live-action film company, whose films at that time were distributed by Paramount Pictures (DreamWorks’ distribution recently shifted to Disney).
At Paramount/DreamWorks, the film languished as executives couldn’t decide if it should be remade into a bigger budget film or release the $11,000 production. Finally, DreamWorks principal Steven Spielberg and others decided to re-shoot the ending at a cost of $4,000 and distribute the original film in a low-cost, viral strategy.
“Everyone agreed that opening ‘Paranormal’ wide would be suicidal, so they kicked off a limited release with midnight screenings in 13 college towns,” notes the “ET” article. “They also agreed that Facebook and Twitter could be huge assets, since the online horror community had kept ‘Paranormal’ buzz alive ever since Screamfest.“ Using the college screenings as a springboard, web service Demand It! was hired to channel movie goer enthusiasm to movie theater chains.
The R-rated film was shot in seven days during Oct. 2006 with unknown actors by its creator Oren Peli, whose background is in video game programmer.
“Paranormal” joins films like “The Blair Witch Project” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” as inexpensive indie productions that became outsized hits.
Related content:
- ’Paranormal Activity’–How the Low-budget Horror Film Became a Box Office Smash
- ’Ghostbusters’ on a Budget: If Things Go Bump in the Night, Grab a Camera
- How Paranormal Activity Became a Frightening Success
- Paramount, Blumhouse Announce Seventh ‘Paranormal Activity’ Movie
- Par Agrees to Video Revenue Share for Short Window
- Will Facebook and Twitter Keep ‘Paranormal Activity’ from Turning into ‘Snakes on a Plane’?
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