Paranormal Activity Topples Saw, Talks of Sequel

If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw right? For five years now that has certainly been the case, with almost every entry in the franchise taking the #1 spot and grossing in excess of seven times its own budget. But this weekend brought Saw VI into the mix, and although reviews for the film have been slightly more forgiving than the last three entries, not only did it not come out of the weekend in the top spot, it is also the lowest grossing opening weekend for the entire franchise – a measly $14,800,00 (the budget for Saw VI was $11m).

As predicted, the Saw killer this year is Paranormal Activity, the little-horror-movie-that-could that was made on a shockingly low budget of only $13,000. It should be noted as well that the film ran in only 1,945 screens compared to Saw VI on 3,036 screens. Word-of-mouth and hype (and a whole lot of quality) has now pushed Paranormal Activity to the domestic gross total of $62,477,000 so far. It’s believed the film will most certainly surpass the $100 million mark soon, making it the most profitable film in Paramount’s history. Talk about a Cinderella story.

Naturally, with one of the biggest hyped events of the year, Paramount is already thinking about what’s next on the paranormal forefront – a sequel. In a recent interview with LA Times, Paramount chairman Brad Grey sounded off on the possibility of a Paranormal Activity 2:

“We have the rights on a worldwide basis to do ‘Paranormal 2′ and we’re looking to see if that makes some sense.”

This is the part where I’m confused. I understand a studio wishing to capitalize on a good thing; this is how the business model for sequels have worked since, well, sequels began. But how does one do a direct sequel to Paranormal Activity, which pretty much has a finite end? If they don’t just go the route of exploiting the hand-held camera documentary-style technique, then Paramount could be wandering dangerously into Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows territory. If you don’t remember that gem, it was the massive flop of a sequel to The Blair Witch Project that made a piddly $26 million as opposed to the first film – which eerily parallels the success of Paranormal Activity – which made a whopping $140 million.

Either way, it’s great to see this phenomenal film succeed. And while I actually don’t have daggers out for the Saw franchise, contrary to my constant ribbing, it is refreshing to see something new and unique take the reigns this Halloween.

In case you missed it, here’s my review of Paranormal Activity.