LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Low-budget fright film "Paranormal Activity" scored a kill over the sixth picture in the perennial "Saw" franchise, with a pre-Halloween weekend box office draw of $22 million.
Lionsgate's "Saw VI" took in $14.8 million.
"Paranormal" went into wide release by Paramount after playing to sellout crowds at midnight-only screenings over the past few weekends in a handful of markets determined by online balloting.
Taking a page from the playbook of 1999's underground smash "The Blair Witch Project," the Viacom Inc unit is letting the fans do the marketing through such social-networking sites as Twitter. Its own marketing costs have been minimal.
Paramount bought the $15,000 movie last year at the Slamdance Film Festival, an indie rival of the concurrent Sundance festival in Utah.
Lionsgate is a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
Last weekend's top movie, "Where the Wild Things Are," which was adapted from the acclaimed Maurice Sendak children's book, dropped to the No. 3 spot with $14.4 million.
"Wild Things" was released by Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros Pictures.
(Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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