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The film, Paranormal Activity, features an unknown cast and crew, and was made for the meagre budget of $15,000 (£9,300). Yet, on the back of an inspired marketing campaign, and exponential hype, it has been selling-out US cinemas and is poised to outperform a host of starry rivals.

Already dubbed "one of the scariest movies of all time", its success is drawing comparisons with The Blair Witch Project, the documentary-style film which in 1999 became the first viral marketing sensation of the internet era, returning a staggering $250m against its $60,000 budget.

The new film, a tale of demonic possession, made mostly on a camcorder, is gaining remarkable momentum in the run-up to Hallowe'en. It represents a rare good news story in an industry bracing itself for cuts to budgets and star salaries, following a slew of redundancies among leading studio executives. It was first released by Paramount a fortnight ago, in just 12 locations and shown only at midnight. But last week Paranormal Activity expanded to 33 US cinemas, making the unthinkably-high sum of $500,000.

On Friday, it was screened in 155 US cinemas. Despite the limited nature of its distribution (an average Hollywood film debuts in around 3,000 locations) it is expected to break into the box office top 10 this weekend, alongside offerings from Michael Moore, Vince Vaughn and Matt Damon.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Gitesh Pandya, an analyst who runs the internet site boxofficeguru.com. "This is a movie where a conventional release pattern would have flopped. They had to do something different."

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/paranormal-activit
y-hollywoods-demonic-saviour-1801005.html

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