MOVIE BUDGET GOES FROM PARANORMAL TO NORMAL

Paranormal Activity 2, which is being released at midnight tonight, cost $3 million to produce versus $15,000 for the original, despite the fact that the sequel retains most of the look and feel of the original. The difference in cost, according to the Los Angeles Times, can be explained largely by the fact that “Paramount is obliged to use union labor in all phases of production.” The newspaper observed that the makers of the sequel were often haunted by concern that the sequel would experience the same sort of rejection at the box office as Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, which flopped despite being produced on a relatively big budget versus the “microbudget” of the original Blair Witch Project. “I’m sure there are a lot of people who will want to make sure that [Paranormal Activity 2] is not Blair Witch 2,” Oren Peli, who created the first Paranormal film and produced the update, told the Times. Towards that end, an elaborate marketing campaign has been employed since September, including a slew of trailers developed for theaters and the Internet. Peli told the Times: “A lot of people are skeptical, but once people see that it works, they will start to spread the word. We won’t know until this weekend, but it feels like we pulled it off.” Appearing to confirm that observation, the website DeadlineHollywood.com on Thursday published what it called “Paramount-provided propaganda” showing crowds of people lined up for a sneak preview of the movie in Hollywood Wednesday night.