The scares will double in 2013

By no means did this weekend’s box office win for Paranormal Activity 4 come unexpected, but it certainly underperformed to become the softest opening weekend since the first installment and even managed to drop 43% ($26.5 million) in revenue since last year’s sequel. Regardless, the worldwide box office returns are still booming and with plenty of talk regarding an upcoming spin-off it’s clear the franchise is still kicking with plenty of money.

Now, Paramount Pictures has confirmed we can expect more things to go bump in the night not only next Halloween but also early next year as well.

THR reports that President of Domestic Market and Distribution Megan Colligan confirms Paranormal Activity 5 will hit theaters in October 2013, with an exact date to be determined. Along with that, a currently untitled spin-off (rumored to be calledParanormal Activity: The Oxnard Files, but we’d take that with a grain of salt) will be released “earlier next year”.

The spin-off has yet to enter production until 2013 kicks off, but the feature was already teased in a post-credits sequence in Paranormal Activity 4. The brief teaser features no English whatsoever, the key is to connect the one-off adventure as an extension of The Witches’ Coven introduced in the third film and will be predominately in English. From director/writer Christopher Landon (writer of Paranormal Activity 2 & 3), the film has yet to receive an exact release date as well.

Despite a domestic drop in the series’ fourth film, overseas the film has increased by 11% and bringing the total opening weekend to $60 million. With perhaps the largest amount of criticism the franchise has received yet, two installments certainly seems a bit risky. There’s no word on who will be directing or writing the 2013 annual outing just yet, but more is expected to surface early next year as Paramount keeps the production very much under wraps.