New Paramount Pictures movie Paranormal Activity

[Guest Ronney Ross]

I Just heard about this film what Im syked about is it was made for $11grand and sold at the film fest to Paramount

heres the trailer:

 

http://www.dreamlogic.net/archives/paranor...review-screener

[Guest]

I Just heard about this film what Im syked about is it was made for $11grand and sold at the film fest to Paramount

heres the trailer:

 

http://www.dreamlogic.net/archives/paranor...review-screener

 

I congratulate the filmmaker and I hope to see this.

 

The downside is that stories like this only serve to fuel the idea that you can make a movie for 11K and sell it to a major studio. It won't be long before people on this very board, site the low cost of this movie as proof that you can make a movie for this little and get it into theaters.

 

What they forget about are the thousands of un-sold movies out there, and that movies like Blairwitch and Paranormal Activity have zero statistical relevance.

 

R,

[Justin Hayward]

The downside is that stories like this only serve to fuel the idea that you can make a movie for 11K and sell it to a major studio. It won't be long before people on this very board, site the low cost of this movie as proof that you can make a movie for this little and get it into theaters.

 

Let’s look at the glass half full – maybe this will encourage filmmakers to get more creative!

 

Who cares about what people post on forums, right? What difference does that make other than annoy two or tree people? I want to see more inspired films.

[Guest]

Let’s look at the glass half full – maybe this will encourage filmmakers to get more creative!

 

Ah excuse me....but if that happened there would be fewer TV shows from the 60s & 70s turned into feature films!

 

Where would we be without feature length versions of, The Dukes Of Hazard, The Beverly Hillbillies, or Starsky and Hutch?

 

I am personally working on my big screen adaptations of Gilligan's Island and Hogan's Heros.

 

R,

[Jason Hinkle RIP]

I kinda feel like half the fun and magic of a movie is missing when they use the "amateur video" plot device. But then again it got this director's foot in the door so who am i to judge?! For my money, i'd rather see pi, primer, clerks, el mariachi or any indie film that doesn't pretend to be home video footage.

 

It did get me thinking, though, how far this genre might go. Reality TV is a significant percentage of show on the air these days. i started thinking about some good movies i've seen recently and wondered how they may have looked had they been shot "blair witch" style? obviously it imposes a lot of limitations but i suppose a great story can be told all kinds of ways.

[Richard Vialet]

Just got in from seeing this. It truly terrified me. TRULY. It was the first time I've ever trembled and shivered in the theatre. I knew nothing about it other than it had a blair witch style and it had a demon. I hadnt even seen the trailer. Now im on the phone with my girlfriend , with all the lights on to distract me.

 

I don't even wanna say much. Just know that this forum reader and the whole audience he was with was terrified and you should see it.

[Paul Bruening]

Just got in from seeing this. It truly terrified me. TRULY. It was the first time I've ever trembled and shivered in the theatre. I knew nothing about it other than it had a blair witch style and it had a demon. I hadnt even seen the trailer. Now im on the phone with my girlfriend , with all the lights on to distract me.

 

I don't even wanna say much. Just know that this forum reader and the whole audience he was with was terrified and you should see it.

 

Sounds like the $11 grand wasn't it's only point. I guess I'll go see it, now.

[Saul Rodgar]

It just made roughly $20 million in its opening weekend. The trailer does look scary.

[Guest]

It just made roughly $20 million in its opening weekend. The trailer does look scary.

 

I hope the creator got a back end deal!!

 

R,

[James Steven Beverly]

I Just heard about this film what Im syked about is it was made for $11grand and sold at the film fest to Paramount

heres the trailer:

 

http://www.dreamlogic.net/archives/paranor...review-screener

 

There's a lot of films that made a lot of money that cost little to make Blood Guts Bullets and Obtain est. 7K El Mariachi est. 7k The Blair Witch project Est. 22K, Halloween est. 320K, Night of the living Dead est. 114K, Psycho est. 807K, easy rider 400K, Texas Chainsaw Massacre est. 140K, The Puffy Chair 15K, Clerks est. 27K, Slacker est 23K, The Brothers McMullen est 25K, Last House on the Left est. 87K, Rocky est 150K, Pi est 60K, Monty Python and the Holy Grail est 250K, A Fist Full of Dollars est. 200K, Mad Max est. 400K, evil Dead est. 375K, Primer est. 7K, Pink Flamingos est. 12K, Faster Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill! est 45K, She’s Gotta Have it est. 175K, In the Company of Men est. 25K, Killer's Kiss, est. 40K, Swingers est. 250K, Bad Taste est 25K, Open Water est. 130K, Run Lola Run est 175K, Blood Feast est 25K, Sweet Sweetback Baadassss' Song est. 50K, Mean Streets est 300K and on and on. Like William Goldman once said Nobody knows anything. All you can do is make the best movie you can with the money you have and hope it grows legs. The sweet spot for indy films is 1.2 to 2 mil. That budget range statistically has the best cost to profit ratio. If I HAD to make a film on an 11K budget, I'd do it, but I sure as Hell would prefer not to be that short.

[Tom Lowe]

The hype advertising alone on this movie is making me not want to see it.

[Guest]

The sweet spot for indy films is 1.2 to 2 mil.

 

That is still a butt load of money to get back. Imagine a direct to DVD movie with a budget of 1.2, how many DVDs would you have to sell to make back 1.2? DVD is say $19.95, then deduct the retailers percentage, the distributors percentage, replication costs, shipping, packaging, and pretty soon you realize you need to sell a mega load of DVDs to make back "just" 1.2 million.

 

By the time the studio is done deducting their "costs" for getting Paranormal Activity out there the 11K movie that made 30 million will generate a cheque for the filmmaker of $13.27 :D

 

R,

[Justin Hayward]

That is still a butt load of money to get back.

 

I once looked up the winners of the Sundance Film Festival of the past ten years or so to see how much they made vs. how much they cost. It was depressing.

[Guest]

Apparently....."Where The Wild Things Are" cost 80 million, and brought in 32 million over the first weekend. Great start, but you do the math and you realize that film has a long way to go to break even.

 

First, that 32 million is gross ticket sales, the studio must share a chunk of that money with the theater owners of course, 30-40% of each ticket? They never reveal the exact percentages.

 

Next, the studio must deduct the P&A costs. And considering the ad campaign for this movie and the number of screens it opened on, the P&A budget was pretty huge. This number is also never given out by the studios.

 

So that first 32 million will have been whittled down quite a bit. I'm sure it will make money at some point, especially with overseas revenue, DVD, and TV sales. But it just goes to demonstrate how successful big movies must be in order to turn a profit.

 

The public only hears 80 million cost vs 32 million in the opening weekend, and they think, wow they made almost half their money back already. This is far from the case.

 

If I had 80 million laying around would I blow it all on a movie. YES, absolutely, you only live once so why not? ;)

 

R,

[James Steven Beverly]

That is still a butt load of money to get back. Imagine a direct to DVD movie with a budget of 1.2, how many DVDs would you have to sell to make back 1.2? DVD is say $19.95, then deduct the retailers percentage, the distributors percentage, replication costs, shipping, packaging, and pretty soon you realize you need to sell a mega load of DVDs to make back "just" 1.2 million.

 

By the time the studio is done deducting their "costs" for getting Paranormal Activity out there the 11K movie that made 30 million will generate a cheque for the filmmaker of $13.27 :D

 

R,

 

Yeah, straight to video, you're screwed. At that budget, you would probably break even or make a little bit, assuming you got distribution. Now with even a limited theatrical release, you're looking at a return on average of 950%,, foreign markets making up about 65% of that which are much more difficult to get with out a theatrical release as you found out on Dark Reprieve. It was only after your brilliant marketing strategy of targeting smaller digital theaters and the 50/50 split deals you made for theatrical exhibition that you were able to attract US video distribution. Now out of that 950% expenses, payments ect. would be taken but you'd still come out pretty well as I suspect you are about to find out with Dogfather. if your deal included back end points. Though, not a Horror film, it does have a decent cast and should have wide appeal. Of course if you had taken all the money spent on making movies last year and put it in the bank, the film industry as a whole would have made more money from the interest than it did from selling films......but where's the glamour in that? B) BTW, if these are first-time film makers without a lot of business experience I think $13.27 return for the film makers might be a bit optimistic. :D

[Guest]

but where's the glamour in that?

 

Exactly. You can't take it with you, besides, I want to work until I'm 87.

 

R,

[Paul Bruening]

Here's what Coppala says about the biz:

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=ema...id=ajbmamDBit14

[Guest]

"While the Godfather films scooped Oscars, he still has challenges in getting sponsors for some projects. He financed “Tetro” with revenue from his vineyard in California."

 

Yep, even the Oscar winners can have a tough road when it comes to film financing.

 

R,

[James Steven Beverly]

Exactly. You can't take it with you, besides, I want to work until I'm 87.

 

R,

 

I personally want to keep going till I'm 102 ljust so I can beat Manoel de Oliveira, the oldest movie director in history.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXbdU9t5L9s

 

This guy is my new hero!! B)

Edited October 21, 2009 by James Steven Beverly

[Paul Bruening]

"While the Godfather films scooped Oscars, he still has challenges in getting sponsors for some projects. He financed “Tetro” with revenue from his vineyard in California."

 

Yep, even the Oscar winners can have a tough road when it comes to film financing.

 

R,

 

Richard, how is the market changing? Usually, we take it from either the making end or the consuming end to try to get a bead on it. Recently, I've tried to take other perspectives. With movies like A Sensible Man and Hurt Locker in limited release we may see a decrease of the stranglehold of the standard, screen distribution model. Could your movie have benefited from a top 20 USA release? You see, right now at my local Malco, they're sitting on movies some of which they've had for well over a month.

 

What if you took the last numbers from your first feature. What would those numbers tell you was your general budget cap on the next feature?

[Guest]

Richard, how is the market changing? Usually, we take it from either the making end or the consuming end to try to get a bead on it. Recently, I've tried to take other perspectives. With movies like A Sensible Man and Hurt Locker in limited release we may see a decrease of the stranglehold of the standard, screen distribution model. Could your movie have benefited from a top 20 USA release? You see, right now at my local Malco, they're sitting on movies some of which they've had for well over a month.

 

What if you took the last numbers from your first feature. What would those numbers tell you was your general budget cap on the next feature?

 

Well I can't really make any comparisons between Dark Reprieve and The Dogfather. The Dogfather had a "real" budget and a "real" crew. Dark Reprieve had none of this.

 

Theatrical releases always have been and always will be tricky. Remember they released the 1977 Star Wars on only 30 screens, FOX had no faith in it. Boy where they wrong :blink:

 

I am waiting for Paranormal Activity to come to Barrie, because I can't be bothered to drive to Toronto where it is playing on a few screens. Which illustrates another issue with theatrical releasing....the market is fragmented within the market. It appears that theatre owners don't think Paranormal Activity will do much business in Barrie, pop 130K, 1 hour North of Toronto. Whereas a film like The Dogfather could do very well considering the number of people here with young families.

 

Running The Dogfather in downtown Toronto would be a different issue because of the lack of young families. As most young couples can not afford to buy homes in the downtown cores of any city in North America so they escape to the "burbs."

 

R,

[Guest]

Finally! I have seen this, it came to Barrie and saved me the drive to Toronto.

 

Not bad, very unusual. The theatre was packed full with the target audience of teens and twenty some things, boy did I look like an old man :blink:

 

Of course I have to sit behind the one girl who thinks it's all real. The door moves, and she starts freaking out.

 

Two weird things about the presentation of this film:

 

1) There are no opening or closing credits of any kind.

 

2) The lights came on in the theatre 3/4 of the way through. I asked the "kid" outside of the theatre if that is supposed to happen and he said, yes that is what they are supposed to do. Has any one else seen this, and also had the theatre lights come on 3/4 of the way through?

 

Strange, not sure what impact Paramount expects that to have on the audience??????

 

R,

[Michael LaVoie]

P Activity may be a decent film but it's adoption by a studio proves nothing. Everyone wants a good scare. I'm just waiting to see this kind of studio backing happen today for an average well scripted indie like Metropolitan which had no stars and a first time director at the helm. Remember when those films came out of nowhere, back in the late 90's? If you've ever listened to Ed Burns on one of his many commentary tracks, you'll be depressed to hear that winning the grand jury prize at Sundance did little to help him secure future funding for any of the dozen or so features he's directed since. It's a struggle for him to even sell the films once they're complete. If he can't sell and distribute his films with a proven track record and stars in the cast, what hope do any of us have unless we churn out a low rent hollywood trill ride like Paranormal Activity.

 

It costs 20 million in TV and print to push a film like Little Miss Sunshine out into the mainstream and unless there's an individual in the studio system championing that particular story for some reason, it ain't gonna happen cause the return will be difficult. The only reason so many losses are even possible is that in the end, every studio is owned by a huge global corporation and the bottom line for the studio is a drop in the bucket for the corporation that owns it. It's a double edged sword in a way. They can afford the continued loss and waste but the threat of it gives an excuse not to get behind anything too "risky" or independent. It's truly depressing however that the successful cross over continues only for the absolute bottom of the barrel in terms of style. Why does Hollywood and the public love the camcorder aesthetic so much? I usually can't stand it. When I go to the movies I want to see a film. Not a youtube video.

[Guest]

P Activity may be a decent film but it's adoption by a studio proves nothing.

 

Yes I agree, as I said in an earlier post there is no statistical relevance to the success of PA.

 

That said, I'm cheesed off with myself for not thinking of this movie first! :D

 

I wouldn't say the public loves the "camcorder aesthetic so much?". There have only been three movies now made with this technique that have gone huge, PA, Blairwitch, and Open Water. Unless I'm missing some?

 

It is still fascinating though that a Hollywood outsider can make a movie for 11K that beats all of the Hollywood fare at the box office and opens at number one over the weekend. That is really quite amazing.

 

R,

[Will Earl]

I wouldn't say the public loves the "camcorder aesthetic so much?". There have only been three movies now made with this technique that have gone huge, PA, Blairwitch, and Open Water. Unless I'm missing some?

 

Cloverfield had the same aesthetic and story telling device (found camcorder footage), it also had studio support from the get-go. I think can think of a few others, but I'm not sure how well they've done financially.