The Devil Inside' is just the sort of film the movie industry needs at the moment, with the low-budget horror film taking a surprisingly large chunk of the weekend's box office takings in America to net a large profit for the film's Paramount distributors. Of course Paramount are no strangers to the budget horror game, it is they after all who own the phenomenal runaway success of the 'Paranormal Activity' franchise, announcing recently that a fourth instalment will be on the way in time for Halloween of this year.

Until then they can bask in the surprise success of 'The Devil Inside' which topped the US Box Office takings over the weekend with a gross of $34.5 million, reports BBC News, well ahead of the previous week's number one 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol' which dropped to two and saw figures of $20.5 million. Commenting on the success of the film, Paramount's Don Harris compared the promotional campaign to those they employed for 'Paranormal Activity' and also 'Cloverfield,' saying "The marketing campaign was very much like Paranormal [Activity].It was online, trying to find the younger movie-goer, the fans for this genre."

The film's success has proved a surprise among analysts, not least due to a general panning from the critics, and acts as further proof that both horror genre fans are among the most unpredictable to target, and that Paramount know a good deal when they see one - they bought the film for just $1 million.