'Paranormal Activity 4' gets release date

Found-footage sequel will beat Dimension's 'Halloween 3D' to theaters by a week

By Chris Eggertsen Wednesday, Jan 4, 2012 7:21 PM

"Paranormal Activity 3"

Credit: Paramount Pictures

In the most shocking news of the year so far, Paramount has announced an October 21, 2012 release date for horror sequel "Paranormal Activity 4", which will effectively make it the fourth film in the series to see release in as many years. The studio first announced the project on Monday, though no further details were forthcoming (and probably won't be for a good while now).

The date will also, incidentally, put "PA4" in theaters a week prior to Dimension's "Halloween 3D", which is currently slated for October 26th. That film, directed by "My Bloody Valentine 3D"/"Drive Angry" helmer Patrick Lussier, is the Weinstein's attempt to reboot the slasher franchise after it stalled out with the disappointing commercial performance of Rob Zombie's "Halloween II" in 2009.

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The question is, if "Paranormal Activy 4" ends up doing gangbusters business at the box-office like the last three installments (last year's "PA3" made a whopping $52.6 million on opening weekend on its way to over $104 million domestically and over $203 million worldwide), will its second weekend end up cutting into "Halloween 3D"'s business? In addition, will audiences be in the mood for yet another 3D horror reboot after "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D" hits theaters earlier in the month?

Perhaps the biggest question of all is - does the new generation of horror fans still give a hoot about Michael Myers?

Interested in hearing what others think about this pre-Halloween release-date game...do you think "Paranormal Activity 4" will continue the mock-doc series' domination of the October box-office?

Chris Eggertsen
Producer

A former contributor to sites including Bloody-Disgusting and AfterElton, Eggertsen enjoys rock music, rainy days and smelling the pages of old books. You should read all of his articles and follow him on Twitter because it's the right thing to do.