With the supposed “final” Paranormal Activity installment, The Ghost Dimension, heading to theaters next weekend, you’d think the folks at Paramount would be pulling out all the stops and excitedly getting ready to start raking in the cash, especially considering it’s the first to be released in 3D. In exchange, Paramount, per industry sources, is giving participating exhibitors an estimated 2-4% share of their digital revenue made between the time the film drops below 300 engagements and 90 days after its opening date. This new policy is also being applied to Paramount’s Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, which will run in just 1,400 theaters.
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Gregory Plotkin’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension will open in 3D on October 23, 2015.
Cinema chains that did sign up include New Orleans-based Southern Theatres, which is among the 10 largest circuits in the US, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Canada’s Landmark Cinemas and upscale exhibitor iPic. The problem though, is that it’s hard to find a genuinely good scary movie these days amongst all of the trash, let alone an excellent one, so many now turn to TV for their horror fix. We’re saying it before the movie opens. The viewer’s internal argument over whether her or she can wait a month or so to see a new picture is not one that theater owners want them to be having at all.
Granted, theaters have reason to be paranoid studios are out to kill them.
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What’s the deal? Well, Paramount is experimenting with a new VOD strategy where their movies will be available for rental shortly after they play on the big screen. If they can just hold out for a few weeks and see the film at home, why not do that?
