‘Paranormal Activity’ yields supernatural profit

By RAFER GUZMAN

He shot it in seven days, on a budget measured not in millions but in thousands, and wound up creating what might be Paramount Pictures’ most profitable film in modern memory.

Not bad for a first-time effort.

“I always dreamed about how cool it would be to be a filmmaker,” Oren Peli, writer-director of the horror film “Paranormal Activity,” said in a recent phone interview. “But I never really thought I would have an opportunity.”

Peli, an Israeli-born former day trader, shot the movie in his San Diego home for about $15,000. Last weekend, the micro-budget movie led the box office at $22 million, racking up $62 million in ticket sales so far and finishing $7 million ahead of “Saw VI,” which cost $11million to shoot, according to IMDb.

This weekend, it expands from 1,950 screens to more than 2,250, and Paramount is already talking about a sequel.

The film stars Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat as an unmarried couple who use a video camera to capture evidence of strange goings-on in their new home. Turns out, the story is somewhat autobiographical.

“The actual idea for the movie was when I moved to my new house with my girlfriend at the time,” said Peli. “We heard weird noises in the night. I didn’t think it was a haunting, but it made me think: How would you go about finding out what’s happening when you sleep? And then I thought: If the video camera did capture something, it would be very creepy.”

After some festival screenings, the film landed at Paramount. Perhaps sensing “The Blair Witch Project” redux, the studio came up with a fittingly cheap marketing plan, asking audiences to “demand” screenings in their towns through the Web site Eventful.com.

That campaign cleverly raised expectations by lowering them. Viewers went in wondering whether a few flickering lights and distant noises would be enough to terrify them, and came out feeling they’d discovered a little gem.

“It had to be some sort of way where the fans can feel a sense of ownership,” Peli said of the grass-roots approach. “It basically lets them do the spreading of the word.”

At the time of filming, in 2006, Peli’s two lead actors were struggling unknowns. Sloat was a computer programmer, and Featherston was, yes, a waitress. They received $500 each for their work in the movie.

But here’s the real payoff: Both are fielding phone calls for auditions. “I know they’re getting a lot of attention,” Peli said. “I’m sure they’re going to have very long and successful careers ahead of them.”