Paranormal Activity is a small indie horror film that was made on an $11,000.00 budget. Blair Witch ring a bell? They are trying a new viral marketing strategy to increase hype for the film, and it seems to be working. On September 25th it was released in a few select cities. Paramount started an eventful page where you can demand the film to come to your city. The film is beginning to build up steam very quickly.

This weekend, Paranormal Activity expanded to 33 cities. The campaign worked and the Thursday through Saturday midnight screenings sold out in all venues, earning a per screen of $16,000 for a total estimated gross of $535,000. Hundreds of thousands of fans across the country have voted for their cities on the Eventful Demand It website, prompting Paramount to expand to over 40-markets. – Slashfilm.com

With the film having such a small budget it’s hard for a studio to put much effort into advertising the film. Advertising virally makes things easier for the studio to find out exactly how many people want to see it, in turn helping their marketing strategy. Some people are saying:

it is bullshit. the studios know where a movie will do well. they are not going to get any surprising results from this.. as if some random hick ass town is demanding the shit out of getting a paranormal activity screening.. it’s the major cities that get the most votes… they’ve already skipped la, nyc, and chicago.. and like you said, obviously these are the biggest markets. this is just a twisted marketing scheme to get people talking about the movie. has nothing to do with discovering niche demographics for this film. im sure they know exactly which cities this film will eventually get to and when. – comment taken from Slashfilm.com

So wouldn’t that be a good thing? People talking about a film? When did that become bad in the indie market? If you made a movie with your friends and a studio took you up on that, wouldn’t you want people to talk about it? The film has already made a half million dollars with midnight screenings, with this kind of publicity what do you think it will do once it hits the mainstream? Even if the studio does know which cities and when, they are just multiplying the amount of people that want to see it in those cities. Most likely they are buying time to ready marketing campaigns for those cities. People will not invest in something unless they can get some kind guaranteed return. Everybody wants their slice. Indie film maker->Movie in the theater->Publicity->Money, Studio->Movie in the theater->Money.

I know lot’s of indies just want to share their art, films, and music with others and money can just be a by product of that which is good. If you do something because you love it, you tend to produce a better product. With that product you do what you wish. Everyone’s art in any form should be seen by the world weather it generates an income or not. It’s an individuals way of saying, “this is me, here I am”, and everyone can appreciate that.

Here’s the trailer: