It seems as if Paramount’s slow, viral roll-out of the low-budget and critically successful horror thriller Paranormal Activity is working quite well. The film, which has only had midnight screenings, expanded to 33 screens this past weekend, raked in $535,000 which resulted in a massive $16,212 per theater average. [Box Office Mojo] As a comparison the weekend winner Zombieland had just over an $8,000 PTA. Hundreds of thousands of fans have demanded the film, prompting Paramount to expand to 40 markets next weekend. One can still demand the film in their city over at Eventful. Paramount has also opened the film up to other movie times, rather than just midnight screenings. Trailer Addict also just put up a bunch of videos of audience reaction to the film. Check that out here.
As highlighted in Dan Mecca’s article on The Future of Film Marketing, do you think this new method of exposure works? Is it just limited to these small budget, low risk films? Have you seen Paranormal Activity yet? Does the film deserve this attention?