UPDATED: Paranormal Activity Scares Up Humongous Box Office

Foywonder |

Oct 11, 2009

**UPDATE: The final numbers are in, and Paranormal Activity was under-estimated. It actually came in FOURTH with $7.9 million!**

After this weekend Paranormal Activity can officially be upgraded from a cult hit in the making to a pop culture phenomenon getting ready to explode. Made for around $11,000 and currently playing on only 160 screens, Paranormal Activity came in fourth at the box office with a – HOLY CRAP! – take of $7,900,695. That is a gargantuan $49,000+ per screen average, more than likely a record for a film on that many screens.

The numbers are provided by BoxOfficeMojo, and remember, folks, Paramount hasn’t even gone wide with the film yet.

The critical reviews and word of mouth have been primarily positive, and even mainstream magazines like Time are beginning to pick up on the fact that the Paranormal Activity freight train cometh (read Richard Corliss’s article here, but beware of spoilers).

If I were Lionsgate, I might be a little nervous that this Halloween’s Saw killer has arrived. If I were the producers of Disturbia 2 … I mean The Stepfather remake … opening this coming week, I’d be downright scared.

So how long until the inevitable backlash kicks into full effect?