Hey guys – hope you had an awesome Halloween! I know I did! :)
Did you see Paranormal Activity yet? I’m still too scared to see it! But, because there has been so much buzz about it, I’ve been kinda obsessed about finding out all there is to know about it ... especially since it was totally made on the cheap!
It’s no secret that this movie has been a HUGE success, and what’s so impressive about it to me is that this was a product of creativity and ambition. That’s right – those two qualities are absolutely FREE!
I’m not saying it’s easy to come up with $15,000 on the spot or anything (after all, the movie had to cost something …), but seriously – with everything available to us these days, anyone can attempt to make something original (and make some money from it!) with a vision and some hard work. I wish I would have thought of the idea to make a movie like that!
So, as sort of final goodbye to the Halloween season this year, I’ll leave you with some fun financial facts about the movie:
- The movie only cost $15,000 to make. The $15,000 included pizzas for dinner! As of now, it has become the most profitable independent film ever.
- The movie made $9.1 million in its first week in the US, breaking the record of highest-grossing weekend ever for a movie playing at less than 200 theaters.
- So far, it's grossed more than $65 million in the US and Canada. That's a record-breaking rate of return of more than 433,000%!!!
- They saved a ton of money on the film’s location – the whole movie was shot in the director’s own home.
- They also saved money on equipment - the movie was shot with just one hand-held home video camera. Most of the time, the camera sat on a tripod. They also didn’t need a camera crew like most movies, so there were some additional big savings there, too.
- The director had no formal film training (Yep, no expensive film school loans to pay off!)
- The whole movie was filmed in ONE WEEK.
Now, let me get back to my original screenplay … ;)
Kim
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