PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES is a HUGE hit for Paramount Pictures

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones debuted this past weekend to take number 2 at the weekend box office with a first weekend take of $18.2 million (the winner of the box office was the animated film Frozen, which raked in $20.7 million and whose title is rather appropriate considering the cold snap affecting much of the U.S. during that weekend). The movie took in $1.2 million on its opening day and also raised $16.2 million internationally, where it ranked number 5 internationally (the world excluding the U.S. and Canada) for its opening weekend.

The film, written and directed by Christopher B. Landon, featuring a Latino story and a mostly all-Latino cast, was created as a side project for the popular Paranormal Activity film series and was specifically made (on a relative shoestring budget of $5 million) to cater to the Latino audience. Paramount Pictures, which produced the project, opened the movie in wide release tri-nationally (1600 theaters in the United States, Canada and Mexico). Based on its opening weekend, the investment has already paid for itself.

For more information on this film and how it did in its opening weekend, click here or here. For more information about the film, click here.