Now, Paramount (the studio distributing the film) is using social media to build buzz and garner support for the film.
The studio has launched a campaign using Eventful to get would-be-watchers excited about a potential wide-release and sharing their enthusiasm across social media sites. If 1,000,000 people demand to see "Paranormal Activity," the film will get a wide release.
From the fine print:
"Paramount Pictures retains the final right of approval over the cities to be ultimately selected, due to theater and exhibitor requirements and other restrictions. The nationwide release is planned for any city which demands it, "demand" defined as at least 100 demands in a 100 mile radius (within the U.S. and Canada)."
As of this writing, more than 550,000 people have demanded to see the film -- so it certainly looks like a wide-release is possible. Cynics (and I tend to count myself as one) might point out that this is just a brilliant ploy to get people excited about a film destined for wide-release. Still, I've had theater chain employees argue to me that Paramount is clearly using this campaign as a way to test the waters, and that if the buzz wasn't there, they wouldn't bother to invest in wide-distribution.
[img src="http://static.eventful.com/store/stickers/flash/assets/split/400x360_mid-paranornal.png" caption="" credit="" alt=""]
[img src="http://static.eventful.com/store/stickers/flash/assets/split/400x360_bottom-paranornal.png" caption="" credit="" alt=""]