Paranormal success

Thanks to an ingenious form of web promotion, «Paranormal Activity», a horror flick reminiscent of «The Blair Witch Project» with a ridiculously low budget of $11,000, is a phenomenal success in the US.

By hiring the web promoters at Eventful, Paramount has made «Paranormal Activity» an unprecedented success. This horror flick with a tiny budget could be the first movie in history to be released thanks to online demand.

First released only in 13 college towns, «Paranormal Activity» went on to generate tremendous buzz on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, where users were able to demand the movie be shown in their town, with Paramount agreeing to do so if the requests hit the million mark.

Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier says: «'Part of it is the movie genuinely terrified people. But I think a lot of it has to do with, for the first time ever, fans are part of the process in bringing a movie into distribution. There is such a sense of ownership and loyalty engendered by being part of the process».

A few weeks ago, Internet analysts concluded that Twitter helped to kill «Brüno» at the box office (see link), which demonstrated the negative aspect of the microblogging platform. Now the success of «Paranormal Activity» confirms that the power of the Internet in terms of marketing has not yet been fully understood. The numbers show the trend in simple terms: «Paranormal Activity» took in $78,000 on its first week-end, $535,000 on its second, and... $6 million last week-end at only 159 theaters!

The story about a couple that installs a video camera in their apparently haunted bedroom in hopes of making a ghost video will most likely be released worldwide in a few weeks.

Watch the trailer of «Paranormal Activity» here: