The Trend: Low-budget found footage horror. Although the first hugely successful found footage horror was The Blair Witch Project in 1999, it wasn't until the release of Paranormal Activity a decade later that studio executives realized that these low-cost, high-reward movies were an basically a license to print cash. One of the most profitable movies ever made, Oren Peli's supernatural thriller grossed almost $195m worldwide on a budget of just $15,000 and soon the market became saturated with similar offerings. The Spanish REC franchise and its US counterpart Quarantine, The Last Exorcism, Apollo 18, The Devil Inside and many, many more have followed the Paranormal Activity template and reaped huge financial rewards comparative to their miniscule budgets. Even outside of the horror genre the higher-budgeted likes of Cloverfield, Chronicle and Project X have all grossed upwards of $100m. Going back to Paranormal Activity; so far the five movies in the franchise have cost a combined $18m to produce, and have grossed over $800m. With figures like that, the found footage genre won't be going away anytime soon. Even established directors such as George A. Romero and Barry Levinson have dabbled in the genre, with the lower production costs offering a greater deal of creative freedom, with found footage alumni Matt Reeves and Josh Trank quickly making the leap to blockbuster material. With Paranormal Activity 5 back in the franchise's Halloween release slot and almost guaranteed to do solid business, studios will continue churning out these low-budget offerings, as the horror genre usually guarantees a strong opening weekend that covers the tiny budget.
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