Box office The film performed even better than its predecessors, grossing $8 million from midnight showings, setting yet another record for a horror film. Its total Friday gross was an estimated $26.2 million, which was the best opening day gross for a 2011 film since
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in July. Bringing its total to $52.6 million, it set a new record for the franchise, surpassing
Paranormal Activity 2's $40.6 million. At the time of its release, it also set new opening weekend records for a film released in the month of October, as well as the fall season (later surpassed by
Gravity in 2013 with a weekend gross of $55.8 million).
Paranormal Activity 3 grossed $104,028,807 in the United States and Canada, along with $101,675,011 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $205,703,818, making it the highest-grossing film in the
Paranormal Activity series.
Critical response On
Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67%, based on reviews from 123 critics, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The website's consensus is, "While the jolts and thrills are undeniably subject to the diminishing returns that plague most horror sequels,
Paranormal Activity 3 is a surprisingly spine-tingling treat."
Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a single star out of four, stating that "the appeal has worn threadbare", but predicted that the film would fare well at the box office nevertheless.
Kim Newman of
Empire gave it 3 out of 5, writing, "If you don't expect innovation from a part three, then this won't disappoint: it may be hokey, but the scares still work."
Home media Paranormal Activity 3 was released on
DVD/
Blu-ray and
video on demand/
pay-per-view on January 24, 2012, and includes an unrated director's cut, "lost tapes" (deleted scenes), theatrical version, and digital copy. A one-disc theatrical version of the movie was released on DVD on February 14, 2012. The film grossed $3.6 million in home sales. ==Sequel==