What began as a directing debut for a guy with no previous experience to making films broke out as the highest grossing R-rated thriller of this decade. Novice Oren Peli’s low-budget thriller “Paranormal Activity” beat all-time records as it emerged amassing millions of dollars in only five weeks of national release. Distributor for the film, Paramount, announces that the underdog film has crossed the $100 million demarcation line as of today.
Originally, coming off from a short budget, the film opted to market utilizing grass-roots style by showing free midnight screenings in college towns. Then they proceeded to the “Demand It” strategy where fans would request themselves for the film to be played in their towns. This strategy led the film to smash the 22-year-old record of the highest weekend grosser at 200 locations or less in early October garnering $7.1 million. Previously, the title was held by “Platoon” with $3.7 million. After two weeks of showing nationwide, the wait paid off as the feature finally hit number one at the box office.
Earlier Peli expressed his gratitude saying, “I am thrilled and very thankful to the fans who have supported the movie from the beginning. Passing $100 million is totally overwhelming and I’m still trying to process it.”
The film is now setting their eyes to surpass the highest grossing independent film of all time, “The Blair Witch Project” grossing a total of $140 million. However Peli is keeping his feet to the ground saying, “How about we talk about that if it actually happens?”
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