Paranormal Activity Is Haunting Broadway — and Selling Out the August Wilson

The Broadway stage adaptation of Paranormal Activity sold out the August Wilson Theatre and grossed $729,250 in a single week, according to Deadline. That is a strong number for a play — no musical, no marquee film star — in a house that seats roughly 1,300.

The production began performances on August 14, 2026, with an official opening night set for September 15, 2026, per Playbill and Deadline. The opening date was later moved up; according to Broadway.com, the show opened August 25, 2026. The Internet Broadway Database lists the production as an original play in the thriller genre, scheduled to close January 3, 2027. That makes it a limited engagement — a set run with a fixed closing date, rather than an open-ended run that plays until ticket sales dry up. The official Broadway site describes the production as a new story on Broadway for a strictly limited run of 20 weeks.

The play comes to Broadway direct from a critically acclaimed run in Chicago, according to Playbill. It also earned a Laurence Olivier Award nomination — Britain's top theater prize — for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, per Deadline.

Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse Productions produced the Paranormal Activity film franchise, is involved in the production. He hosted a special performance on August 26, 2026, according to Playbill. The stage version is based "in spirit, though not plot" on the Paramount Pictures films, Deadline reported — meaning audiences get a new story, not a scene-for-scene replay of the movies.

Levi Holloway wrote the play. Felix Barrett, founder and artistic director of the immersive-theater company Punchdrunk — best known for Sleep No More, the wordless, mask-wearing Macbeth adaptation that ran for years in a converted Chelsea warehouse — directs. The two leads, Cher Álvarez as Lou and Travis A. Knight as James, are Broadway newcomers, according to Deadline.

The story follows Lou and James, a young American couple who have relocated from Chicago. Lou has been experiencing lost time and black-outs — events the play frames through a podcast opening, in which a thick-accented medium declares that houses aren't haunted; people are.

Fly Davis designed the two-tiered set, depicting a lived-in London flat with the upstairs bedrooms always on view — so even when the action is downstairs, the audience can see what is happening above. The production features illusions by Chris Fisher, lighting by Anna Watson, and sound design by Gareth Fry.

Tickets started at $58.88, per Broadway.com. Rush and lottery programs — last-minute discounted ticket draws — offer seats for $40, according to Playbill. The show was announced in May 2026 and casting was revealed in June, per Deadline and Broadway News.

What makes this stand out is the combination: a horror property from the movies, a director known for immersive work, two unknown leads, and a limited run — all of it selling out a Broadway house in August, before the fall season has even settled in.