There was talk yesterday that Paramount was planning on moving Paranormal Activity 5, the fifth installment in the popular supernatural franchise, from its October 2013 release date to January 2014 and today it turns out the rumors were true.
Paranormal Activity 5 will now hit theaters on January 3, 2014, making way for Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which will take the October 25 release date. Bad Grandpa will be a feature film, presumably taking advantage of the Jackass sketch in which Johnny Knoxville dresses up as an old man and pranks unsuspecting citizens. I’ve included an outtake of the character from Jackass 2.5 at the bottom of this post.
As for the Paranormal movie, I’m sure many will assume this to be a bad thing considering the last three years have seen a Paranormal film in the October time slot, where it dethroned the reigning horror franchise, Saw.
The last installment in the franchise was the lowest grossing of the lot, but when a film produced for $5 million still makes $140.8 million worldwide it’s hard to stop making more.
The biggest bright spot for the new release date, however, is the success Paramount’s low budget horror The Devil Inside enjoyed on the same January weekend in 2012. Released on January 6, The Devil Inside brought in $101 million worldwide on a budget of only $1 million as audiences seeking a reprieve from the onslaught of award season features ran to the supernatural found footage film. While the film itself was poorly received, it still was a huge success. I can’t imagine Paranormal Activity 5 will do any worse and I honestly expect it to do much better.
What we still don’t have any information on is the supposed Latin-based Paranormal Activity spin-off, which was teased at the end of Paranormal Activity 4. Is it possible Paramount may spring this on us come October?
