Twittering a movie to box office success

LONDON, UK: A low budget horror film has social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to thank for its success at the US box office.

‘Paranormal Activity’, shot in documentary style, cost less than 15,000 dollars (£9,500) but went on to become one of the top grossing films in the country, amassing more than 7 million dollars at the box office, said report in The Telegraph.

And the reason for the success? Word of mouth reports on websites like Twitter.

"We all spend a lot of time talking about Facebook and Twitter and our ability to communicate. Here's a case where it allows people to rally around a movie they care about and for them to have a sense of participation, then tell other people, 'Hey, this is something you should see, too,” the report quoted Rob Moore, Paramount vice chairman, as saying.

“You almost do a double take when you look at that theatre count for a movie in the top five. That’s amazing. That’s unprecedented,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.