Owen was happy about the deal he had closed with A24.
The day after finalizing it, he had dinner with his family and shared the good news. His mother and sister were thrilled. His father, too, and proud.
Today, July 6th, Owen was at home, sitting in front of his computer.
Sophie wasn't with him. She was busy rehearsing for The Boogeyman, the horror movie in which she had been cast as the lead.
In about two weeks, on July 20th, filming would begin in New Orleans. She had already told him that the shooting schedule would last around thirty days, which was standard for a mid-budget film like that.
During that time, Sophie would be completely absorbed in the project, and physically absent as well, since she had to travel to another state more than a thousand miles away from Los Angeles.
Owen understood and accepted it. After all, he was an actor himself and knew this was part of the job.
Owen was working on a new script he planned to finance with the profits from Paranormal Activity's box office. Of course, that wasn't something he could do just yet, with his capital still limited. But if Paranormal Activity succeeded…
Then yes, it would be wise to get ahead of things and have the script ready so that, once the money came in, he could start as soon as possible.
He and Cristian had discussed releasing the film in late August or early September. A24 had already begun preparing for the marketing campaign.
Even though the movie was ready, they couldn't release it right away. They needed time for promotion.
Still, the real question remained:
Would the film work?
In his previous world, Paranormal Activity had been a phenomenon, over 193 million dollars at the worldwide box office with a tiny budget. A commercial miracle that revitalized the found-footage subgenre, which hadn't seen a real boom since The Blair Witch Project.
But here, in this new reality, things were different. It wasn't 2007, it was 2022.
Audiences had changed. Social media now dictated what went viral or not. The found-footage format was no longer new, though it wasn't common either.
Few films in this reality had successfully taken that approach. The Blair Witch Project was still the benchmark, but its sequel had flopped, and since then, no one had managed to replicate its impact.
Moreover, Paranormal Activity was no longer in the hands of Paramount or Blumhouse, two giants with global reach and massive marketing experience.
Now it was A24 distributing it, a studio more focused on the alternative, aesthetic, and auteur-driven. And while A24 had prestige and a loyal cinephile following, it wasn't known for launching massive box-office hits.
Even so, Owen believed.
He had completely rewritten the script, refined the dialogue, adjusted the pacing, improved the buildup of tension, and, above all, fixed the flaws he remembered from the original film.
The scares were better constructed, the suspense built more organically, and most importantly, the performances were infinitely stronger.
Still, aiming for 193 million was unrealistic.
His goal and expectation were to reach around 50 million at the box office. Half would go to theaters. From the remaining 25 million, he would get 5 million, since he held a 20% share.
It was an ambitious target for a limited release, but not impossible, especially if word of mouth exploded and theaters expanded showings as sales grew.
With that capital, he could fund a modest-budget feature film, still far beyond the $20,000 he had used to make Paranormal Activity.
If the film performed well in theaters, as he hoped, streaming platforms would come knocking.
Netflix, Max, Amazon Prime, or even Disney might bid for exclusive licensing rights for a few years.
For an A24 film grossing around 50 million in theaters (hypothetically) and receiving strong critical acclaim, that license could be worth between 5 and 15 million dollars, depending on the media buzz, exclusivity, and other factors.
If A24 negotiated well and sold it to Netflix, say for 10 million over five years, Owen would again receive his 20%.
That would be another 2 million dollars for Owen from the streaming sale alone, plus additional income from cable rights, Blu-ray, and digital rentals, potentially adding a few more million.
In summary, in this optimistic yet plausible scenario, Owen could reach a personal net worth of nearly $10 million.
An astonishing figure, considering he had started with only $20,000.
But there was another way to increase his wealth: selling the IP.
In this hypothetical case, with such a level of success, it was almost certain that a major studio would come forward with an offer,
not to license it, but to buy the intellectual property of Paranormal Activity outright.
A studio thinking about sequels, prequels, or series, seeing a franchise instead of just one movie.
And honestly, they wouldn't be wrong. In his previous world, the Paranormal Activity saga had been a goldmine:
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Budget: $15,000
Box office: $193 million
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
Budget: $5 million
Box office: $177 million
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
Budget: $5 million
Box office: $207 million
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
Budget: $5 million
Box office: $142 million
The first four installments were a commercial phenomenon.
Then came two more films with uneven results and a clear decline, though one was still profitable, while the other, Next of Kin, was more uncertain, as it never made it to theaters due to the pandemic.
Therefore, if Owen's version of Paranormal Activity managed to gross $50 million or more, studios would undoubtedly be interested in buying the IP.
How much could they offer him?
It would depend on the final performance, but assuming a $50 million box office and strong critical reception, an offer between $1 million and $5 million for the IP would be reasonable.
And if Owen decided to include in the deal the complete script for Paranormal Activity 2, which he remembered perfectly, that price range could rise even higher.
Why?
Because he'd be saving the studio months of development and writing costs, allowing them to move straight into pre-production and speed up the entire process.
Why would Owen sell the IP, though?
After all, he knew he could make even more money producing the sequels himself. He knew there was a potential goldmine there.
He could easily make Part 2, Part 3, even Part 4 if he wanted to,
but he didn't want to.
He had already seen every installment, and he could replay them in his mind as if he had a movie theater inside his head.
He found the first film original, minimalist, and unsettling. What came afterward, in his opinion, was just a decaying repetition of the same formula.
Starting from the second movie, everything became predictable. The storytelling was weaker, the characters worse, and the mystery stretched so thin it eventually snapped.
He wasn't the only one who thought so, both critics and audiences agreed.
So why did the films still make so much money?
Good marketing, smart release timing (usually close to Halloween), and the fact that they were easy-to-watch horror films for that season, perfect to enjoy with friends or a date.
While he could rewrite, improve, and restructure them as he had done with the first one, that would mean months of work, time he wasn't willing to commit when he had so many other movies and series he could bring into this new reality.
There was another issue, too: he couldn't act in any of the sequels.
His character died in the first film. In the second, he appeared briefly since it was a kind of prequel, but afterward, he disappeared completely from the canon.
Owen loved acting. That was his driving force.
Besides, even though Paranormal Activity 2 had been a financial success in his previous world, it had a $5 million budget.
That meant if he decided to produce it on his own, he'd have to invest a significant portion of the capital he earned from the first film.
Of course, none of this was decided yet. For now, it was just a possibility. He still had to wait for the film's release and see how much it grossed before deciding what to do with the IP.
Just then, his phone began to vibrate.
Owen, who had been typing and lost in thought about his new movie, turned his gaze toward the phone on his desk.
When he saw the name, he stopped writing. It was Larry, the agent who had gotten him the audition for The Hunger Games 4.
Owen remembered that today was the deadline to hear whether he'd gotten the role or not.
He picked up the phone calmly and answered.
...
Author's note:
What would you do? Sell the Paranormal Activity IP or keep it?
And what do you think should be Owen's next movie?
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