BoxOffice® Pro - January 2014

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BIG PICTURE Kathryn Newton starred as Alex in the most recent edition of the franchise, Paranormal Activity 4 Paramount unleashes two new Paranormal Activity sequels in 2014, but is the record-breaking horror franchise a ghost of its former self? by Shawn Robbins Assistant Editor BoxOffice.com 28 BoxOffice ® Pro The Business of Movies JANUARY 2014
Horror franchises tend to come in waves. The late 1970s and ’80s saw the rise of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger. The late ’90s begat genre entries even more teen-specific with Scream and its iconic Ghostface, to be followed by a brief run of Japanese horror remakes—popularized by The Ring and The Grudge. But unlike the aforementioned staples of the late 20th century, their sequels failed to scare up big business. Traditional scream fests were left by the wayside in favor of “gore porn” like the Saw franchise, whose run carried the entire horror genre’s torch for half a decade starting in 2004. And then came director Oren Peli with Paranormal Activity, a shoestring-budgeted ($15,000 for production costs) minimalist supernatural flick that he shot in his own house. A couple of years later, Steven Spielberg screened the film himself and helped get Peli’s flick a distribution deal through Paramount and DreamWorks, which used unconventional methods to build word of mouth. The film debuted in 12 college towns in September 2009, building the kind of grassroots buzz that studios dream about for an unknown pic with zero star power. That’s when the Internet started taking notice. Movie communities heard rumblings of the little horror movie that was traumatizing (in a good way) audiences as the film expanded into 33 theaters for its second weekend and 160 for its third, when it earned a stunning $49,379 per location. Those were numbers unseen by any horror flick since 1999. That was when The Blair Witch Project haunted the nation with $56,002 and $63,811 location averages in its first two weekends. Paramount knew it had a massive hit on its hands. By its 28th day of release, Paranormal Activity had banked $40.5 million without playing in more than 760 theaters. The film then saturated the nationwide market, taking first place in its fifth weekend and adding locations through its eighth week, the buzz now reaching beyond horror fans and into the mainstream. The movie accumulated $108 million domestically and another $85.4 million overseas—all against just $17 million in negative costs (virtually all of which was spent on marketing). Thus, a franchise was born. One year later, Paranormal Activity 2 rode the still-surging wave of the first film to a massive $40.7 million opening weekend. Paranormal Activity 3 followed in 2011 with a record October bow of $52.6 million in its first three days. Last year’s Gravity recently surpassed that mark with $55.8 million. The Paranormal Activity brand has since become known as one of the most profitable franchises in cinema history. Paramount has wisely kept production costs at $5 million or less for the three sequels, meaning total costs between $27 million and $32 million after marketing. To date, each film has made back its total budget by the end of opening weekend. The series became an annual Halloween tradition (picking up where Saw left off), but in 2012, the demand hit a wall. After the third film’s record debut and $104 million domestic run, mainstream audiences decided the series was no longer a major event for them. Paranormal Activity 4 posted a $29 million debut—far below expectations—and ultimately topped out just under $54 million by the time it left theaters. Granted, those numbers are still fantastic for Paramount’s bottom line, but North American theater owners saw half as many people show up for the fourth movie as its predecessors—meaning half the concessions sales, too. On the brighter side of the fence, international audiences didn’t seem to mind the consistency: Paranormal Activity 4 earned $88.5 million outside of its home country, not much less than the $92.5 million and $97 million foreign grosses of the second and third films, respectively. Where does the series go now? Instead of launching a new entry for Halloween in 2013, Paramount pushed the release of its spin-off, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, to January 3, 2014. The first weekend of the year isn’t known for producing hits DECEMBER 2013 BoxOffice ® Pro The Business of Movies 29
Page 1 and 2: $6.95 JANUARY 2014 IS A ‘DO-NOTHI
Page 4 and 5: JAN. 2014 VOL. 150 NO. 1 chris pine
Page 6 and 7: UPCOMING 3D MOVIES 2014 JAN 10 LION
Page 8: EXHIBITION BRIEFS The cast of Merri
Page 12 and 13: EXECUTIVE SUITE A “Do-Nothing Con
Page 14 and 15: BOX OFFICE REPORT THE GLOBAL TOP 25
Page 16 and 17: BOX OFFICE REPORT Top Five Overseas
Page 18 and 19: FESTIVAL CIRCUIT Joseph Gordon-Levi
Page 20 and 21: OF EXHIBITION Exhibitors ranked by
Page 22: GIANTS OF EXHIBITION WORLDWIDE SITE
Page 25 and 26: EXECUTIVE ROSTER Robert M. Cobb, Pr
Page 27 and 28: TIE 34 CINEMA ENTERTAINMENT CORP. L
Page 32: BIG PICTURE The orginal Paranormal
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Page 38 and 39: COMING IN JANUARY WIDE n Boasting a
Page 40 and 41: COMING IN JANUARY WIDE RIDE ALONG n
Page 42 and 43: BOOKING GUIDE compiled by Daniel Ga
Page 44 and 45: BOOKING GUIDE TITLE RELEASE DATE ST
Page 46 and 47: BOOKING GUIDE TITLE RELEASE DATE ST
Page 48: AD INDEX CARDINAL SOUND & MOTION PI
Page 51: AVAILABLE NOW!

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