H2=Brand recognition. 30 years worth of known hype given the series is a household name. Backing of a major studio and production house to create, shoot, develope spfx etc.
Total gross since it’s release on August 28th=$32 million, on a budget near $40 million.
Paranormal Activity=ZERO brand recognition. No hype outside of a few weeks of TV campaigning, and nothing close to a household name. With ZERO name actors.
Total gross in 2 weeks of release (Week 1 EXTREMELY limited release, and week 2 fairly limited release nationwide, but in select theaters only)=$33.7 million, on a budget of ONLY $11,000.00!!! Yes, ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS T O T A L !
A movie with zero name actors (4 cast members in total, and one stunt man) on a budget of 11k, with no brand name recognition DESTROYED H2 inside of 2 weeks. One of said weeks, was in severely limited release and the other week in select theaters only.
And some of you are convinced that a Halloween movie can’t do well on the dime? Bravo experts LOL!
Thats a great point right there man, if only they would realize the best way to bring a great Halloween fan following again would be to actually add some suspense and make it more of a thriller like the original without using so much money or the use of the gimmicky 3D
One is posted in the “Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Other” section because the film Paranormal Activity falls under the “OTHER” banner. And I also put it here, because part of what I said involved H2, which obviously falls under the “Rob Zombie’s Halloween Films” banner.
What’s the issue with opening up the discussion to those who don’t necessarily visit both sections frequently? Probably no issue at all infact.
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is a once per generation, lightning-in-a-bottle phenomenon of a movie. It is in no way a representation of shooting a horror flick on a low budget, because for every PARANORMAL, you get thousands of movies that are so bad that they go direct to DVD or get shelved.
PARANORMAL, like BLAIR WITCH before it, are event movies. Movies that are billed as something you NEED to see in the theater because they are so terrifying.
PA has destroyed just about everything (if not entirely everything, looking at gross per theater) in its path. It’s not fair to single it out against H2. This just looks like another excuse to throw dirt on the grave of the horse that was killed weeks (months?) ago with the endless bashing of the same stick.
I dig reading what you write, but this seems like you’re reaching a little bit. In the horror world, a phenomenon like this has probably only really happened three times in the last 30 years - HALLOWEEN, BLAIR WITCH and PARANORMAL. You just can’t compare a movie like PA to the tenth movie in a slasher series.
By the way, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was FANTASTIC. Completely and utterly fantastic.
this is pointless who gives a shit dude no offense…i come here everyweek an hesitant to post because all people wanna do is argue its so annoying…what happen to just talkin about his mask and shit haha too much to ask for…we all used to be mad tight and the HATERS are lettin h2 destroy everything…THATS somethin to ponder man
Jesus, if you didnt manage to sound bias before, congrats you did it now. Blame the studio and releasing H2 at an awful time up against alot of competition in the following weeks. Especially a bad move having it go against a popular horror film series with a gimmick.
Paranormal Activity had a very slow building, no budget but ultimately attention-grabbing promotional strategy.
Most of the major horror sites like bloody-disgusting, Fangoria, Shock til You drop etc pumped its campaign up to the max and for free.
Social networks like facebook had petitions made to encourage a general release.
All of these tactics only fueled the publics interest, particularly the horror fans who account for a major percentage of the market.
Like the original “Blair Witch” this minimum exposure, maximum interest sold it.
By the time “Blair Witch 2” rolled around curiousity had waned. It grossed 26 million domestic gross, pretty terrible compared to the 140 million the original made.
So as a brand name “Halloween” could never do any of these things, it is too well known and as stated above curiousity is at a minimum.
Therefore using “Halloween 2” as an analogy here wasn’t a genius idea. It just comes across as trying to rise a row.
Some of you guys CLEARLY missed the point here. It was to show that a budget, studio, big names and such aren’t NEEDED to make Horror stand tall at the forefront.
Jesus H Christ, get over the H2 bullshit kids. It bombed, let it go. I used MY comparison to show that BIG BUCKS aren’t needed.
Maybe you should get over the H2 stuff, because every post of yours seems done just to try to take another jab at it, even when its not your main topic of discussion. paranormal activity was indeed a good time. So was Zombieland and Jennifers Body. The fact still remains while H2 wasnt perfect, the studio is more to blame than anything with their release date strategy.
That movie (H2) needs NO help being bashed by me, it handled that all by itself. It was suicide from the get-go. Trancas are NOT known for their get decision making abilities.
But alas, this ONCE AGAIN, is not about H2, it’s to show that a truly great movie can happen with nothing but a great story, great director and about $11,000.00. I’m simply using H2 as the basis for what a GOOD horror flick should do the exact opposite of if it’s trying to be successful.
C’mon Show, I laid out a well thought post with some very valid points. Please respond with some dialogue, rather than throwing out blanket statements about how we just don’t get it.
True, PA cost 11k and is tearing up theaters. It’s really a masterpiece of terror. That said, it’s an anomoly, extremely rare. Same as Blair Witch.
For every PA, there are dozens of horror flicks with budgets that are very strong.
You are correct, you don’t NEED the budget if you have a genius idea like PA. The tenth Halloween sequel, however, has NO genius ideas. I won’t argue that Halloween would probably be better served if stripped down and given to a no-name. Someone who is hungry to make a kick-ass movie. However, you really can’t compare H2 to PA.
I’m not comparing the films to each other as much as I’m comparing the formula to what went into both films. One succeeded, the other bombed. PA proved that a big budget filled “epic” can’t defeat great films with well thought out formulas based on simplicity and suspense.
It’s not the case of how many beauties and failures have graced out VCR’s and subsiquently our DVD players in recent history, but about how the makers of H2 and subsiquent sequels should take note of what it takes to make a great film. I think it CAN be done again, and often when you have the right elements in place. The problem with great horror being few and far between is hollywoods remake cliche-world we live in currently.
Even Dreamworks had the intention of REMAKING PA once it bought the rights and THEN releasing the film. They had also planned to release the original version along with the DVD release. That is until they decided to pre-screen the film in it’s original form, and it blew people out of their seats.
Proof again, that it CAN be done and done often IF DONE RIGHT. Now Blake, let’s you and I get together and do a fucking screenplay and get it done LOL!
