A horror film shot over a single weekend at a cost of just NZ$20,000 is currently one of the biggest movies in the United States, thanks to an ingenious marketing campaign.
Paranormal Activity is simply terrifying and it was simply made. It's a virtual no-budget horror film about a couple who try to film things that go bump in the night.
It's currently No. 4 at the US box office.
Fans are calling the film phenomenally scary - but then they asked for it.
Paramount Studios didn't know whether or not the film was marketable. So instead of giving the film all the usual promotion, they put on some free screenings at a few universities and hoped the internet buzz would do the rest.
"We said to the fans, 'If you show up - we'll keep putting the movie on more screens'," says Amy Powell of Paramount Pictures.
Fans were told to log on to a specific website and Paramount promised that if the website got a million hits, they would release the film across the United States.
The million hits were received in just four days.
"The only money we've really spent on this campaign was spent on setting up our Demand It page, and then we let the fans take it from there," says Powell.
According to Paramount, Paranormal Activity had a record weekend for a movie playing in fewer than 200 theatres, surpassing the US$3.7 million haul for Platoon in 174 theatres early in its run in 1987.
Factoring in today's higher prices for movie tickets, which average nearly twice as much as in 1987, Paranormal Activity sold about the same number of tickets as Platoon.
Plans for a release of Paranormal Activity in New Zealand have not yet been announced.
3 News / ITN / AP