Thanks to Paramount’s first-ever “Tweet to See it First” campaign, 20 select cities across the world will get a sneak peek at Paranormal Activity 3 starting tomorrow, days ahead of its October 21st wide release. The tweeting vote campaign proves that the Paranormal Activity franchise isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon, but has devoted fans as far as Tel Aviv and Melbourne.
The cities that won the tweeting campaign to get special early screenings of Paranormal Activity 3 shown in their locales include Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio (what’s up with the Texas love?) Vancouver, Toronto, London, Sheffield, Tel Aviv, Panama City, Mexico City, and Melbourne, Australia (and a few others).
For fans who actually want to get into the special screenings, an RSVP process is in place. Paramount invites the public in these regions to go to the film’s official website for a “chance” to get into one of the screenings. Given the anticipation of Paranormal Activity 3 in these select cities, I have no doubt that tickets into the screenings are going to be hard to come by.
The third installment in this “found footage” horror franchise is a prequel of sorts, exploring the beginnings of the demonic haunting of Katie and her sister Kristi. “Hand-cam”-style movie experts Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are directing Paranormal Activity 3. Some may recognize their names as the directors of the quote-unquote documentary they did about a guy who meets a girl on Facebook and finds out she’s not what she seemed, called Catfish.
The first Paranormal Activity was made on a shoestring budget, and exploded when it hit theaters making a butt-load of money for the filmmakers. This has prompted two sequels now, and probably more to come. Why would Hollywood ignore a proven moneymaker? And this tweeting hysteria proves there is still an eager audience for what these filmmakers are dishing out, whether you’re a fan or not.