A stage adaptation of Paranormal Activity began previews at the August Wilson Theatre on 52nd Street this week, and its first four performances already sold out. The show arrives at a fraught moment for Broadway, where 15 of New York City's 41 major theaters currently sit dark even after the district notched record grosses last season.
Written by Levi Holloway and directed by Felix Barrett, the play is not a retelling of any of the seven Paranormal Activity films, but rather features a new plot centered on a Chicago couple relocating to London, according to the New York Post. The production, which counts Blumhouse's Jason Blum among its producers, is scheduled to formally open August 25 for a limited 20-week run, according to TodayTix. Before landing on Broadway, the show built momentum through engagements in London, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Boston, per the Post's reporting.
Chasing the Horror Audience That Fills Movie Theaters
The bet behind the production is straightforward: horror has become, per the Post, the only movie genre that consistently draws paying audiences, with recent hits like Sinners, Weapons, Obsession, and Backrooms cited as evidence of the format's pull. Gen Z, loosely defined in the piece as ages 14 to 29, now makes up the majority of moviegoers, and the genre's appeal to younger viewers is central to why Broadway producers are courting it. The original Paranormal Activity film, made for just $15,000 and marketed through midnight campus screenings before Paramount set a release date, went on to gross $194 million and rank among the most profitable films ever made, the Post reports.
Producers are hoping some of that built-in brand recognition, paired with established horror franchises like The Conjuring, the Halloween reboot series, and Final Destination, can translate into ticket sales for a medium that charges roughly ten times more than a movie ticket for a comparable night out, according to the Post. The production is leaning on organic word-of-mouth rather than a heavy marketing push to build its audience, the paper notes.
A Genre With a Mixed Broadway Track Record
Broadway has flirted with horror and suspense before, with uneven results. Ira Levin's Deathtrap remains the longest-running thriller in Broadway history, racking up 1,793 performances between 1978 and 1982, according to a historical account cited by researchers tracking the genre. Frederick Knott had two earlier successes in the genre as well: Wait Until Dark, which starred Lee Remick as a blind woman terrorized in her apartment and ran 373 performances in 1966, and Dial M for Murder in 1952, both per the Post's rundown of Broadway thriller history.
Not every horror bet has paid off. Critic Frank Rich once wrote that the intended Stephen King pyrotechnics of one production would not frighten the mai tai drinkers at a Polynesian restaurant, a line the Post revives to illustrate the genre's history of misfires. The 1988 musical Carrie flopped outright, and a stage adaptation of The Exorcist, directed by John Doyle, played in Los Angeles in 2012 but never reached New York. More recently, Holloway's own Grey House, starring Laurie Metcalf and Tatiana Maslany, opened at the Lyceum Theatre in May 2023 but closed within three months, an outcome the Post frames as an original horror-theater attempt that simply was not ready for primetime.
A Director Steeped in Immersive Scares
Felix Barrett brings a specific pedigree to the project as the co-director of Sleep No More, the immersive Macbeth-inspired thriller that ran for nearly 14 years at the McKittrick Hotel and wrapped up in January 2025 after roughly 5,000 performances, according to the Post. That experience with sustained, atmosphere-driven scares is part of why producers see him as suited to translating a found-footage horror franchise into a live theatrical experience.
Paranormal Activity is not the only screen-horror property testing Broadway's appetite. Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which carries its own elements of fright and cost a large amount of money to produce, has been running at the Marquis Theatre since it opened in 2025. Both shows represent a broader industry wager that Hollywood horror brands, paired with elaborate stagecraft, can pull younger, movie-going audiences into a Broadway landscape still working to fill its dark houses. Critics are expected to weigh in on Paranormal Activity this weekend, ahead of its formal opening later this month.
