The films in the Paranormal Activity franchise have owned the Halloween season since it dethroned the Saw series in 2009, but now it looks like this could be the first year since the start that a sequel hasn't been released. According to The Wrap, Paramount Pictures is currently contemplating moving the upcoming Paranormal Activity 5 from its current release day on October 25th to some time in January 2015.
Last year's Paranormal Activity 4 was considered to be a failure on multiple levels. Not only did the movie get the worst reviews out of any title in the series, it was also the least successful at the box office. While 2011's Paranormal Activity 3 had managed to make an impressive $104 million by the end of its run, part four was only able to bring in $53 million. The project was still quite profitable, as it was made for only $5 million, but it was a low point for the franchise.
As The Wrap points out, Paramount has used January as a launching pad for their low-budget horror movies before. Last year they put The Devil Inside in theaters on January 6th, and it became the third highest-grossing January opening weekend ever, bringing in nearly $34 million. Unfortunately, the movie sunk in the following weeks due to bad buzz, and by the end of its run actually made almost exactly the same amount of money as Paranormal Activity 4, So this could end up being a lateral movie.
Another reason behind the possible move is the fact that late October happens to be a pretty crowded field this year. Not only is Paranormal Activity 5 slated to come out against both Ridley Scott's The Counselor and Spike Lee's Oldboy, it will also be sandwiched between both the remake of Carrie and Ender's Game. As of now January is a fairly tame schedule that a Paranormal Activity movie could ease into, though The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes, Devil's Due, and Jessabelle, three other horror movies, are currently set to come out the first two weeks of 2014.
As is normal with Paranormal Activity movies, we know absolutely nothing about part five or where the story will go from where it ended in part four. It would appear that directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who helmed the last two movies in the series, are not coming back for the latest sequel. The new film's release date was announced less than a month after Paranormal Activity 4 came out, so presumably the studio has been working to put the movie together over the last year. Why they are only now starting the second guess the October release date is anybody's guess.
