Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity was made off a $15,000 budget and was directed by filmmaker Oren Peli. The film premiered at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in 2007, before being shown at the Slamdance Film Festival a year later. Peli - who first gained a cult following in 2008 following the screening at the Slamdance Film Festival - caught the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg originally wanted to direct a big-budget remake of the film and keep the original as a DVD extra, but he instead brought the film to Paramount.
The film had a limited U.S. release on the 25th September 2009 at midnight screenings in Los Angeles and 12 select college towns across the United States. Eleven of the twelve college town venues sold out. After these releases, the film evoked an unpredicted amout of demand at studios and local theatres, leading Paramounts co-presidents of marketing to team up with Eventful (an online calender and event discovery service) for a campaign that went against traditional routes. This was the first time a major motion picture studio used the service that Eventful provided to vitrually market a film.
This campaign meant that fans across the country could literally demand that the movie was screened in their area. The campaign therefore determined which markets Paramount would select for a series of midnight screenings. This was all achieved using a minimum of TV spots featuring reaction shots from audiences within the screenings and a small amount of radio and online adverts.
Paramount aimed to advertise Paranormal Activity as an experience rather than just a film, they tried to avoid giving teasers of any of the horror involved in the film in order to entice the audience. This method appeared to work as the film grossed over $500,000 on the weekend of October the 2nd 2009, after being shown exclusively at midnight screenings in 12 markets, including 5 sold out screenings at Los Angeles' ArcLight theatre.
On October 6th, Paramount announced that if the film got over one million "demands" on Eventful, then the film would be released nationwide. On October 9th, the full limited release of the film started, and on October 10th, the film reached its target of a million requests on Eventful. Paramount announced that the film would get a wide domestic release on October 16th. The film was playing in theatres worldwide by November.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on Decemeber 29th, 2009. The home release includes an alternate ending to the theatrical version and also featured 15 minutes' worth of names at the end of the film of the fans who "demanded" the film. The film was also released in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD on March 22, 2010.
Paranormal Acitivty grossed over $193 million internationally, and was followed by five other films following the same style and featuring Katie Featherson, who reprised her role as Katie throughout the series. Paranormal Activity 2 was release in 2010 and was set several weeks before the events of the first film, whilst Paranormal Activity 3 was released in 2011 and was set in 1988 and focused on a young Katie and Kristi - the main protagonists of the first two films. Paranormal Activity 4 was release in 2012 and based in 2011. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was released in 2014 and follows a Latino community based in LA. The final film of the series, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimesion was released in 2015 after an original release date of October 2013. The final installment of the franchise focuses on a family who discover several tapes that show Katie and Kristi in the midst of their initiation ritual to enter a denomic cover 21 years prior. This film featured a camera that can show unique supernatural happenings which the family use to record the paranomal activities that take place in the house.
Paranormal Activity was made off a $15,000 budget and was directed by filmmaker Oren Peli. The film premiered at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in 2007, before being shown at the Slamdance Film Festival a year later. Peli - who first gained a cult following in 2008 following the screening at the Slamdance Film Festival - caught the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg originally wanted to direct a big-budget remake of the film and keep the original as a DVD extra, but he instead brought the film to Paramount.
The film had a limited U.S. release on the 25th September 2009 at midnight screenings in Los Angeles and 12 select college towns across the United States. Eleven of the twelve college town venues sold out. After these releases, the film evoked an unpredicted amout of demand at studios and local theatres, leading Paramounts co-presidents of marketing to team up with Eventful (an online calender and event discovery service) for a campaign that went against traditional routes. This was the first time a major motion picture studio used the service that Eventful provided to vitrually market a film.
This campaign meant that fans across the country could literally demand that the movie was screened in their area. The campaign therefore determined which markets Paramount would select for a series of midnight screenings. This was all achieved using a minimum of TV spots featuring reaction shots from audiences within the screenings and a small amount of radio and online adverts.
Paramount aimed to advertise Paranormal Activity as an experience rather than just a film, they tried to avoid giving teasers of any of the horror involved in the film in order to entice the audience. This method appeared to work as the film grossed over $500,000 on the weekend of October the 2nd 2009, after being shown exclusively at midnight screenings in 12 markets, including 5 sold out screenings at Los Angeles' ArcLight theatre.
On October 6th, Paramount announced that if the film got over one million "demands" on Eventful, then the film would be released nationwide. On October 9th, the full limited release of the film started, and on October 10th, the film reached its target of a million requests on Eventful. Paramount announced that the film would get a wide domestic release on October 16th. The film was playing in theatres worldwide by November.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on Decemeber 29th, 2009. The home release includes an alternate ending to the theatrical version and also featured 15 minutes' worth of names at the end of the film of the fans who "demanded" the film. The film was also released in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD on March 22, 2010.
Paranormal Acitivty grossed over $193 million internationally, and was followed by five other films following the same style and featuring Katie Featherson, who reprised her role as Katie throughout the series. Paranormal Activity 2 was release in 2010 and was set several weeks before the events of the first film, whilst Paranormal Activity 3 was released in 2011 and was set in 1988 and focused on a young Katie and Kristi - the main protagonists of the first two films. Paranormal Activity 4 was release in 2012 and based in 2011. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was released in 2014 and follows a Latino community based in LA. The final film of the series, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimesion was released in 2015 after an original release date of October 2013. The final installment of the franchise focuses on a family who discover several tapes that show Katie and Kristi in the midst of their initiation ritual to enter a denomic cover 21 years prior. This film featured a camera that can show unique supernatural happenings which the family use to record the paranomal activities that take place in the house.
Main Brief:
After researching the distribution of the Paranormal Activity franchise, I have decided that we would distribute our films to a single cinema company (e.g. Vue or Empire Cinemas) and set up a demand sheet online for fans of the horror franchise to ask for the film to be released to other film companies. We also plan to release the trailer online and as television adverts in the hope of gaining an audience. We also would want to release the trailer in all cinemas to be shown before other films of a similar certificate.
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