'Paranormal Activity 4' To Be Written By The River Producer

As amazing as it sounds, the Paranormal Activity movies are gaining and not losing an audience. Despite cinemagoers clearly paying to see the exact the same movie every October, more and more are flocking to theatres to get their cheap thrills from Paramount's absurdly successful horror series. The first Paranormal cost $15,00 to make and earned a ludicrous $193.4 million worldwide thanks to a clever concept, smart execution and a perfect marketing campaign. The sequel cost several times over the budget of the first to produce (though still came in at a paltry $3 million) just one year later but went on to earn $177.5 million worldwide, slightly less than the original but still pound-for-pound one of Paramount's most successful movies in history. We had expected the third film released last October to show a steep decline in audience numbers as people started to understand that the series was a one trick pony. But then you should never underestimate how gullible audiences can be and Paranormal Activity 3 ended up with the biggest taking of the series to date with $206 million worldwide from a $5 million budget. So yeah, basically these movies will be around for a very long time indeed with these numbers. Paranormal Activity 4 was announced as a go-project in January and now we know Zack Estrin, a producer on ABC's The River will write the script. No that much work really goes into these films. A minimal script, with a director/producer mucking around with a camera for a fortnight (or so) and then letting the marketing team do the rest before landing it in theatres. Anyway Estrin got the gig as he is friends with Jason Blum and the horror series' creator Oren Peli who produce The River. So if you were in any doubt, this movie is just a few clever blokes messing around and getting paid a great deal of money for it. Catfish directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are expected to return and direct star Kate Featherston once again having helmed the last flick. Paranormal Activity 4 will hit October 19th.