The reports obviously keep on coming in about the continuing box office success of two popular movies, the super-low-budget Paranormal Activity and Michael Jackson’s This Is It. However, it’s come to a point to take note of the milestones achieved by each film: Paranormal Activity has crossed the $100 million mark domestically, and This Is It has made $200 million worldwide.

Paramount asked the public to demand that Paranormal Acitivity be played in their hometowns and the public did just that by not only pushing the supernatural thriller to the number one position against Saw VI, but also helping it become the most profitable independent film ever made.

As of now, Paranormal Activity has earned almost 6,000 times its original production budget of $15,000; as a expression of gratitude to moviegoers around the world, Paramount wants to make sure that you, the fans, are personally thanked for all your support by allowing you to submit your name to be featured in the “Thank You” section of the film’s credits when it’s released on DVD.

Oh Hollywood, you would make me laugh if you didn’t make me want to cry.

A couple of days ago we wrote about an upcoming British horror film called The Possession of David O’Reilly, which is a “shockumentary” (guess that’s the new buzz term for found-footage horror flicks) about a demonic spiriting terrorizing a young couple in a London flat. That same post foretold of a movie industry gold rush attempt to recreate the smashing success of Paranormal Activity, a small film from director Oren Peli made for $11K, which has gone on to gross $86 million domestically. The decision NOT to remake Paranormal Activity into a big-budget film turned out to be a wise choice for Paramount, which is now swimming in unexpected (and substantial) profits.

But was that brief flash a wisdom a fluke? I ask because now comes word that Paramount is now moving ahead with Paranormal Activity 2.

This week:

The box office says This Is It; The Tourist finally gets its bags packed; Billy Bob Thornton and Dwayne Johnson go Faster; Ricky Gervais hosts The Golden Globes and DeNiro and Stiller are hanging out with the Little Fockers.

Box Office

Michael Jackson’s This Is It topped the box office over the Halloween weekend with an estimated $21 million. The concert film has made $32 million in the US in the five days since it opened. It’s an okay start for the movie, but not the huge debut that Sony was hoping for. It’s doing twice as well overseas and has brought in about $100MM worldwide so far.

[WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!!]

We recently did a post about the alternate endings to Paranormal Activity, which, apparently, there are a few of. In that post, we described the original ending to the film, which was different from the “dead body hurled at the camera” climax that many of us saw in the theatrical version that Paramount put out.

The original ending (which we here at Screen Rant have dubbed the “Katie Myers Ending”) was more along the lines of something out of Rob Zombie’s Halloween films (hence the nickname), rather than a fitting finale to a creepy ghost story. Of course that was just MY take on the matter – now you too can be the judge, as the original “Katie Myers Ending” to Paranormal Activity has manifested online!

Wow, this Paranormal Activity mania is really getting wild; now that Oren Peli’s low-budget ghost flick has made $61 million for Paramount, every studio and their mother is scrambling to try to duplicate the successful recipe. Taking a page out of the Hollywood playbook, Epic Pictures is doing its own English-themed version of Paranormal Activity, entitled The Possession of David O’Reilly.

Written and directed by Andrew Cull, The Possession of David O’Reilly tells the story of the David O’Reilly, a British boy who becomes possessed by the same demonic spirit that was exorcised from his American cousin, Emily Rose.

Ok so I just made that synopsis up, if you haven’t guessed, but still, this film IS borrowing some familiar elements from some very familiar sources…

Update: We’ve added a featurette for The Fourth Kind

With Halloween arriving this week, moviegoers are going to be on the hunt for that perfect spooky film in which to scarf all their Trick ‘R Treat candy. After the low-budget ghost flick Paranormal Activity carved up  Saw VI, at the box office this past weekend, it seems as though Halloween moviegoers are in the market for something new (something BOO!) this year.

Following just on the heels of the scariest day of the year comes The Fourth Kind, a movie which recounts the “true events” of one doctor’s (Milla Jovovich) investigation into a town whose residents experienced shared phenomenon having to do (supposedly) with alien abduction.

So, alien abduction theorists, are you guys as dedicated as the leagues of ghost hunters out there? Will The Fourth Kind become the next fright flick box office smash? Or will it be the next competitor to fall before the steamroll of Paranormal Activity?

This week:
Over the weekend the box office Saw some Paranormal Activity; Carl Ellsworth was hired by Paramount but he wants C.O.D (Cash On Delivery); True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten is Griff the Invisible; Derek Mears gears up for Predators and Laura Dern Meets Stiller and family.

Wow. It looks like the Saw franchise has finally come to a grisly end. The sixth film in the horror franchise opened with 50% less than what was predicted, earning a not-so-good $14.7 million. The film probably only cost about $15 million to make, but this poor gross means that it’ll have to have some serious overseas takings to make new installments viable.

UPDATE: Now you can watch the “Katie Myers” ending to Paranormal Activity!

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PARANORMAL ACTIVITY ORIGINAL ENDING

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[WARNING: This Article Contains HEAVY SPOILERS!!!]

So by now a lot of you have ventured out (and I do mean “ventured”) to see Oren Peli’s low-budget ghost story flick, Paranormal Activity. Ever since we posted an early review and the latest theatrical trailer, Paranormal Activity has become one of the hottest topics on our site. However, viewers seem split over whether the film is one of the best horror entries in recent years, or an over-hyped ripoff that couldn’t scare a ten-year-old.

Well, anybody who’s been following the Paranormal Activity knows that it took Oren Peli and his producing partners almost two years to get the film into a theater near you. And along that long journey, the film was cut and recut into the version we all saw in theaters. But how different were earlier versions of Paranormal Activity? Well, for one thing, the header image above was part of an alternate ending from an earlier version of the film – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg…

A new theatrical trailer has been released for Oren Peli’s super low-budget supernatural horror, Paranormal Activity, which has already become somewhat of a phenomenon in the movie world, earning itself the tagline of “the next Blair Witch Project,” and so forth. It’s already brought in an impressive $13.5 million – impressive for a film that only cost $11,000 to make.

In case you happened to miss all the coverage (it would be pretty hard to if you read movie news regularly), Paranormal Activity is about a couple who set up a video camera in their room to try and capture the strange goings-on they’ve noticed during the night. Obviously things continue to go bump in the night, and we get to see it “found-footage” style.

This week:

Vince Vaughn Retreats to the top of the box office; another comic book adaptation makes it way up the Gravel road to the big screen; Michael Bay kills The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Ryan Reynolds hitches a ride with Motorcade and New Line needs a Vacation – but will Chevy Chase be invited?

Box Office

Swingers duo Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau landed in the top spot with Couples Retreat. The comedy snatched an impressive $35 million from movie-goers despite bad reviews.

It looks like that little mega low-budget supernatural horror flick, Paranormal Activity, is working out very well for those involved. On top of director/writer/editor/producer Oren Peli moving on to Area 51, a couple of PA’s other producers, Jason Blum and Steven Schneider, are “close” to selling a spec script called The Jealous One.

Sometimes those smaller films can work wonders…

Based on the 1985 Celia Fremlin book of the same name, The Jealous One is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about a wife who dreams she murders a woman who might be tempting her husband, only to find that the woman has actually disappeared. Sidney Kimmel Entertainment is close to acquiring the spec script, written by newcomer Carey Malloy.

As Paranormal Activity continues to spread to theaters across the nation, the film’s director, Oren Peli, has been keeping his hand-held camera focused on another modern phenomenon, Area 51. For his next film, the Israeli-born director will be headed into America’s worst-kept secret, to tell the story of three teens whose stupidity curiosity leads them to the famous secret-section of the Nellis Air Force Base out in the Nevada Desert, in search of (what else?) extraterrestial phenomenon.

Of course, when they get there, strange things are bound to ensue.

Paramount’s small-scale, VERY low budget supernatural horror film, Paranormal Activity, has been playing in various different cities for a few weeks now. At first the film was only playing in a handful of cities, but has been progressively expanding to more and more places. The movie’s forward motion has been pretty much due to continued demand from a clearly scare-hungry audience out there, fueled not least by word that the movie is genuinely frightening.

Today we learn that Paranormal Activity is getting an even WIDER release than before, going from midnight screenings on weekends, to playing all day in various cities across the country.

A couple of weeks ago we posted the trailer for the new supernatural, super low-budget horror film called Paranormal Activity, which has been generating a lot of great word of mouth and reviews (including from our own Kofi Outlaw). The end of the trailer let you know that if  Paranormal Activity wasn’t playing in YOUR city, that you could go to the official website and “Demand It” to come to a theater near you.

On the surface the “You Demand It!” campaign looked like one of those neat ideas that would never really work in practice. Well, think again guys! It appears the “Demand It” feature has worked very well, as evidenced by the fact that Paramount will be opening Paranormal Activity in 20 additional cities than it was showing in before. Along with the list of new cities, here’s a quick message from the film’s writer, director, producer and editor, Oren Peli:

Fantastic Fest: Day One is now officially under the belt, as are a large amount of bizarre culinary treats, including the aformentioned root beer cookies. As promised, they are amazing. Amazing and extremely filling. Don’t eat this with a horror movie, or a film about sailing at sea during rough weather, because it’ll make you toss those cookies right back. I probably don’t need to eat sweets for a month now.

So how did the first day fare? It was a bit of a mixed bag. Things didn’t get rolling until the late afternoon, and it was a roller coaster of different movies that ended up being the good, the bad, and the in-between.

SHORT VERSION: “Scariest Movie Ever” is a tall order to fill, but Paranormal Activity is definitely a serious fright flick that will continue to creep you out long after the movie ends.

Screen Rant Reviews Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity is a little film that was reportedly made for $11,000 over the course of a seven-day shoot by writer/director/producer/editor Oren Peli, and stars newbies Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat and the couple’s camcorder.

The ghost story is pretty straightforward: Katie and Micah (the actors use their real names in the film) are a young couple who have been together for about a year or two and have recently taken the plunge of moving in together. Soon after, they begin to experience weird paranormal activity taking place in their home – lights and sinks turning on and off, doors slamming, etc. Katie soon reveals that this isn’t the first time she’s been “haunted by ghosts” – when she was 8, she had re-occurring visits from a shadowy apparition and her family’s home was eventually burned to the ground without explanation. Since then, the apparition has followed Katie wherever she goes, “visiting” her from time to time, up to the present. Micah wishes that Katie had told him all this BEFORE they moved in together.

Happy Friday everyone! Today we’ve again gathered the latest posters to come out for this week’s poster round-up.

Screen Rant’s wall this week now includes one-sheets for Toy Story 3, Saw VI, Paranormal Activity, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Blind Side, Dark Country, Jekyll & Hyde, The Hole, Get Low, The Descent: Part 2, The Karate Kid, The Fourth Kind, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and A Christmas Carol.

But that’s not all! We also have the latest sets of character banners for Where The Wild Things Are and The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Let’s get to it.

We recently learned the surprising and refreshing news that a studio was choosing NOT to remake a movie, said movie being the shaky-cam-style horror, Paranormal Activity. The studio acknowledged (not in so many words) that Paranormal Activity is SO good there wasn’t a need to remake it. You speak the truth, Paramount! The Oren Peli written and directed film is about a couple who decide to set up a camera in their bedroom to try and capture the mysterious goings-on that have been happening at night in their house. Needless to say, nightmarish things occur….

Today we have the official trailer for Paranormal Activity, as well as the promo poster. Both items play up the fact that this film has been described as one of the scariest movies of all time, with guaranteed nightmares for those who watch it. That’s a tall order to deliver on.

No need to double-check, you read that headline right.

The folks over at Dreamworks (a division of Paramount) have reminded us of a time when being a movie studio actually meant something, by deciding NOT to remake the already-horrifying Paranormal Activity. In unrelated news, a recent survey of Hell shows the climate of the region down ten degrees from this time yesterday.

Paranormal Activity was a 2007 film about a young couple whose home is haunted be demonic spirits. The film was shot in the “Blair Witch” shaky-cam style and was the first film by writer/director Oren Peliwas.  While undoubtedly an inferior remake would bring in millions, the original film was considered so good that… well, I’ll let you hear it straight from the horse’s mouth: