If you have a small-budget independent horror film you want to get into theaters, then make sure it's Paramount Pictures that grabs it.

Paramount, which has made buckets of cash with the Paranormal Activity series, has struck again with a whole new film: "The Devil Inside."

Made for just $1 million, the film made $34.5 million this weekend, marking one of the biggest January film openings of all time. In fact, according to Entertainment Weekly, only "Cloverfield" and the re-release of Star Wars did better, with $40.1 million and $35.9 million respectively.

The film was written and directed by William Brent Bell (with some additional work by Matthew Peterman), who before this had only written a comedy called "Sparkle and Charm" featuring Clint Howard in 1997, and the 2006 horror thriller "Staying Alive" with Frankie Muniz of "Malcolm in the Middle" fame.

This gives "The Devil Inside" a push of $33.5 million in the black already, and is expected to finish its run with about $70 million. That's because analysts are expecting a huge drop-off of the film, which not only is typical of horror films like this, but also expected since "Devil Inside" received terrible reviews.

Of 44 reviews tracked by the website Rotten Tomatoes, only three liked it. Nearly 13,000 audience members have registered their opinion about the film as well, and only a third like it.

By comparison, the recently released "Paranormal Activity 3" was liked by 67 percent of its critics, and 58 percent of its audience. Of course, one might argue that the Paranormal Activity franchise has had a chance to settle in with audiences. Yet, the first "Paranormal Activity" in 2007 was liked by 82 percent of critics and 56 percent of audiences.

"The Devil Inside" is a paranormal film involving exorcisms in Italy where one exorcism goes bad, killing four people, and a woman conducts more unauthorized exorcisms to find out what happened.

It stars Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman and Evan Helmuth.