Paranormal Activity Movie

Just a few weeks ago, Katie Featherston was balancing plates brimming with spaghetti and baked ravioli, working as a waitress at Buca di Beppo at Universal CityWalk. Micah Sloat was a struggling actor/computer programmer living in North Hollywood. Now, they're watching the micro-budget horror movie they filmed three years ago develop into a full-blown phenomenon. The two play the young couple haunted by a spectral force in the breakout hit "Paranormal Activity." The suspenseful supernatural thriller, reminiscent of "The Blair Witch Project," has become one of the year's biggest success stories.

Midnight at the Sundance Film Festival is usually when most Hollywood types are just starting to party. But at this year's 26th annual showcase of independent film, many film buyers will be heading in a different direction: late-night sales screenings. The festival, beginning today in Park City, Utah, has yielded the art-house breakouts "An Inconvenient Truth," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Reservoir Dogs." Over the next 10 days, though, distributors could be less interested in potential award-winners than carnage and comedy.

The positive buzz about this micro-budget spectral thriller started building at a Park City, Utah, film festival, word of mouth spread quickly via the Internet, early nationwide college-town screenings sparked even more interest, and a slowly expanding theatrical release fed the flames. It's the model that made "The Blair Witch Project" a cultural phenomenon and box-office blockbuster exactly a decade ago, and it's a carefully crafted plan that Paramount Pictures is following nearly to the letter with "Paranormal Activity."

Just a few weeks ago, Katie Featherston was balancing plates brimming with spaghetti and baked ravioli, working as a waitress at Buca di Beppo at Universal CityWalk. Micah Sloat was a struggling actor/computer programmer living in North Hollywood. Now, they're watching the micro-budget horror movie they filmed three years ago develop into a full-blown phenomenon. The two play the young couple haunted by a spectral force in the breakout hit "Paranormal Activity." The suspenseful supernatural thriller, reminiscent of "The Blair Witch Project," has become one of the year's biggest success stories.

Moviegoers can expect a real horror show in theaters this weekend, but the fierce duel isn't between some ax-wielding assassin and a resourceful teen. Instead, it's a showdown between the scary-movie powerhouses "Saw VI" and "Paranormal Activity." Prognosticators say the clash for box-office supremacy could be remarkably close, with several giving a slight advantage to the micro-budget, essentially homemade "Paranormal Activity," which continues to defy all expectations, even within Paramount.

Midnight at the Sundance Film Festival is usually when most Hollywood types are just starting to party. But at this year's 26th annual showcase of independent film, many film buyers will be heading in a different direction: late-night sales screenings. The festival, beginning today in Park City, Utah, has yielded the art-house breakouts "An Inconvenient Truth," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Reservoir Dogs." Over the next 10 days, though, distributors could be less interested in potential award-winners than carnage and comedy.

The third "Paranormal Activity" movie will spook its competitors at the box office this weekend. But it remains to be seen whether it can scare up more dollars than the franchise's second installment. "Paranormal Activity 3" is expected to collect $40 million to $45 million domestically, according to those who have seen pre-release audience surveys. Paramount Pictures, the studio releasing the movie, is predicting a softer debut of around $35 million. The second "Paranormal" film opened to $40.7 million on the same weekend last year.

Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey had an unusual message for an industry in which taking credit for the latest hit is standard practice. "Evidently we have a situation where you put one foot in front of the other every day at the studio," he said on a conference call with his senior executive team Sunday. "We all work very hard, and every once in a while you find yourself bumping over a miracle." Whatever savvy went into distribution and marketing -- and there was certainly plenty of it -- Paramount indeed has a miracle on its hands with "Paranormal Activity," a movie produced for $15,000 and acquired for $300,000 that vanquished four new pictures with combined production budgets of more than $155 million to finish No. 1 at the box office this weekend.

Moviegoers can expect a real horror show in theaters this weekend, but the fierce duel isn't between some ax-wielding assassin and a resourceful teen. Instead, it's a showdown between the scary-movie powerhouses "Saw VI" and "Paranormal Activity." Prognosticators say the clash for box-office supremacy could be remarkably close, with several giving a slight advantage to the micro-budget, essentially homemade "Paranormal Activity," which continues to defy all expectations, even within Paramount.

The positive buzz about this micro-budget spectral thriller started building at a Park City, Utah, film festival, word of mouth spread quickly via the Internet, early nationwide college-town screenings sparked even more interest, and a slowly expanding theatrical release fed the flames. It's the model that made "The Blair Witch Project" a cultural phenomenon and box-office blockbuster exactly a decade ago, and it's a carefully crafted plan that Paramount Pictures is following nearly to the letter with "Paranormal Activity."