Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

Fans line up for sequels to their favorite movies. Sometimes that backfires big time.

Before every long-running horror franchise finally ends, they always return one last time to claim a final victim: their most loyal audience. It’s pretty clear Paranormal Activity — and maybe the entire found-footage horror subgenre — is out of gas, but here’s Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension anyway, ready to milk a few more bucks out of the last surviving souls who are still invested in its convoluted mythology, and complete the series’ transformation from elegant simplicity to desperate gimmickry, with the addition of 3D to the mix.

The first Paranormal Activity cost just $15,000. It went on to gross more than $107 million in the U.S. alone, making it one of the most profitable films of all time. That’s just one of the many facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which heads deep into the ghost dimension for a look at the first Paranormal Activity.

As we prepare for next week’s release of the final film in the Paranormal Activity franchise, the fine folks at Paramount have given us an early treat. A new viral video features the house from the original film, set up as a fake open house to lure in — and terrify — potential buyers. Sure, they could be actors, but if so, it hardly seems like it judging by their behavior.

Paramount executives have set up the upcoming found-footage horror sequel Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension for failure at the box-office. Paramount has opted to release the sixth film in the Paranormal Activity franchise into a comparatively paltry 1,400 theaters in America, as opposed to the 2,883 of last year’s The Marked Ones and upwards of 3,000 for each of the previous films in the series. A new item from The Hollywood Reporter estimates that the film will gross a measly $10-12 million in the domestic market, an all-time low for a series that began with a $193.4 million gross on a $15,000 budget. And yet the executives at Paramount don’t consider this diminished box-office presence a failure at all.

For the folks keeping track at home, The Ghost Dimension marks the sixth installment of the Paranormal Activity franchise, which means that they’ve only got ninety-four more features to go until they hit the magic number at which Paramount can sell the syndication rights to TNT and start making some real money. In actuality, Paramount has made it clear that they intend to pull the plug on the franchise after this feature, laying the series of found-footage horror films to rest once and for all. They intend on going out with a bang, not a whimper, judging by the latest trailer for the upcoming film.

After taking last year off, the Paranormal Activity franchise is back for what they promise is the final movie (unless there’s another Marked Ones-style spinoff up Paramount’s sleeve). The latest trailer shows off a clever concept for Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, which will bring the franchise full circle by incorporating the events of the prequel (Paranormal Activity 3) with a new family and story.

Major theater chains have been resisting the ongoing shortening of release date windows, which put new movie releases on VOD before they even leave theaters, sometimes on the very same day as their theatrical debuts. In a move that should make theater chains even more weary, Paramount is tightening those windows with two of their upcoming horror releases — Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.

The first three Paranormal Activity movies, released in successive years from 2009-2011, made over $577 million worldwide. The fourth movie made half what the previous film did, and the fifth, a Latin-American themed spinoff subtitled The Marked Ones, made even less than that. The film built up a complicated mythology and then seemed to abandon it all. The next, and reportedly final, Paranormal Activity movie will arrive in theaters this fall (in 3D, no less) and promises to reveal all the film’s secrets. Now you can watch the trailer for the latest installment and see if you still care.

We had a new Paranormal Activity film each year for four years, but following reports of some creative issues, the franchise took a little break. The series will return this year with its fifth installment, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, which will officially be its last. Paramount and Blumhouse have revealed the first images from the upcoming sequel, and it looks like this one is going right off the rails.