14 DAY TRIAL // The sequel to last year’s sleeper“Paranormal Activity” premiered in select US theaters on Friday at midnight and broke all R-rated records with over $6 million in ticket sales, it has emerged.
Though definitely boasting a bigger budget and much more support from Paramount Pictures than the first film, “Paranormal Activity 2” did not disappoint fans as some skeptics said it would, based on a long history of Hollywood underwhelming sequels.
On the contrary, it actually proved a much bigger hit on its opening night than the first film, with EW’s Hollywood Insider saying it set a new record for midnight R-rated screenings.
In doing so, “Paranormal Activity 2” has just placed itself in the running for the biggest movie at the North American box office over the weekend.
“The demons, and quite a few moviegoers, were out last night for the midnight debut of Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 2, which grossed $6.3 million from 12:00 a.m. screenings, according to studio estimates,” EW reports.
“That figure is the highest midnight gross for an R-rated film, besting Watchmen‘s $4.6 million take from last year,” the same report indicates.
“Paramount has been heavily promoting Paranormal Activity 2 as a ‘midnight movie’” and this early turnout practically ensures that the sequel will surpass its predecessor’s wide-release opening of $21.1 million,” EW says.
And that’s not all Paramount Pictures has been doing to promote the second film: as we also reported a few days ago, it’s been giving fans in the US the chance to download the first film free of charge by simply pre-ordering tickets for the sequel.
Then, there’s the very aggressive viral campaign that built up pre-release hype. As fans must know, the success of the first film heavily relied on word of mouth online, which allowed it to become a hit at the box office (especially considering that its budget was well under $15,000).
The sequel followed the same “recipe” as regards marketing, with Paramount releasing at least 7 viral videos into the wild, aside from a couple of trailers for it.
All signs seem to point out that all the above worked.