The Blair Witch Project (A)

The low budget horror film, The Blair Witch Project, was one of the biggest success stories in film history based on the ratio of production cost to revenue. Costing only $35,000 to create, it generated $48 million in its first week of wide release (on 1,101 screens) in July 1999, and its eventual worldwide box office totaled $245 million. The film was also one of the biggest success stories in recent history in terms of the novelty of its marketing campaign—hundreds of articles now promote the concept of “viral marketing” and the Blair Witch Project is frequently lauded as one of the paradigmatic examples of viral marketing. The case discusses the marketing strategy and implementation behind the Blair Witch Project.