Picking up where we left off tracking the fate of Paranormal Activity, this LA Times article:

Twelve college towns played the ultra-low-budget horror film at late-night screenings Friday and Saturday, and virtually all sold out. The sole exception was in State College, Pa., where a Penn State football game Saturday evening left a show at about 75% capacity, according to the studio.

Numerous theaters reported sellouts hours before screenings started, indicating that the studio’s strategy to build “Blair Witch Project”-like buzz from college students was a success.

Based on the positive response, Paramount is putting together expansion plans and will start rolling out the film in new markets Friday, where it will continue to show “Paranormal Activity” in late-night screenings only.

The plan is for more of the same: Several additional late-night screenings and more viral marketing. Learned something new from the article:

“Paranormal Activity” was acquired by DreamWorks nearly two years ago. Initially, the studio planned to produce a bigger-budget remake, but after getting positive responses from industry talent who saw the film, including Steven Spielberg, it decided to release it as is. The movie stayed with Paramount Pictures after DreamWorks left its former parent company last year.

They were going to do a “bigger-budget remake.” Given remake mania in Hwood, I bet they figured, “Ah, hell, let’s see what we can scrounge up with this $15K movie using new media for cheap advertising, establish it as a ‘pre-branded brand,’ then do a remake in 5 years. Get two dips at it instead of one.”

BTW, current Rotten Tomatoes rating is 92%, albeit with only 24 reviewers.

UPDATE: Paramount decides to add 20 more cities to the movie’s release schedule:

The studio said the cities with the highest demand for exclusive midnight showings included Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, Phoenix, San Francisco and Philadelphia. The movie will also come to Atlanta, Miami, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Denver, Detroit, Baltimore, Sacramento, San Jose and Tampa.

Based on voting at the movie’s website where over 200,000 fans have registered their votes.