Once known as God Particle, J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield Paradox has had a troubled release history. After experiencing repeated delays, it was announced in late January that Netflix was in talks to buy the movie from Paramount Pictures. Prior to even officially confirming that the streaming service had acquired the film, Netflix spent upwards of $5 million on a 30-second Super Bowl ad telling the event's enormous audience that they could watch the third installment in the franchise as soon as the big game was over.

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Shortly after the announcement, filmmaker Ava DuVernay called Cloverfield Paradox and its release a "gamechanger" on Twitter, and she's right. Netflix's marketing strategy with Cloverfield Paradox was brilliant. And while it's not yet clear how well Cloverfield Paradox will end up doing for the streaming service overall, the movie will get a lot of views in its first days online. Netflix's strategy took advantage of the Super Bowl in a way nobody has before, in the process (and possibly deliberately) bypassing reviewers who, in a traditional release setting, might have driven viewers away from the film.

Cloverfield Paradox Perfectly Took Advantage of the Super Bowl

Cloverfield Paradox villain

Choosing to release Cloverfield Paradox without pre-announce ing it capitalized on the Super Bowl's massive audience in two ways. It generated enormous social media buzz, and got the film's name in front of over a hundred-million viewers. The movie's announcement generated a lot of social media buzz, in large part because of the boldness of Netflix's move. People were talking about the the streaming service's decision to release a film on only a few hours notice, after all, which is something we've never seen before. A lot of social media buzz rarely hurts a film, and it may, in fact, have been even more effective in driving viewers to watch the movie than the viral marketing and alternate reality game campaigns that helped generate buzz for Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane.

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The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched television events any given year, so Netflix's short, mysterious ad got Cloverfield Paradox's name out in front of a massive audience that -- based on the many other trailers for upcoming superhero and sci-fi themed movies that always play during the game -- is pretty interested in that sort of content. Although many remained tuned to NBC for the massive This is Us episode, which aired immediately after the game, Cloverfield Paradox offered fans of genre entertainment an alternative, leading many viewers to spend their night on the streaming service.

Netflix's blitz also took advantage of what some are dubbing "Super Sick Monday," the day after the Super Bowl when nearly 14 million people are expected to miss work. Cloverfield Paradox's release gives people something to do on their impromptu day off from work, meaning that more viewers are likely to watch the movie.

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The reviews for Cloverfield Paradox are steadily rolling in, and they're not stellar. Reviewers are critiquing the film for all sorts of reasons, including (but not limited to) problems with its narrative structure, logic issues and some rather tenuous connections to its predecessors. The big part of the movie's appeal is that it uses the Cloverfield name, which does have an association with quality. Not releasing the film for reviewers allowed fans to go into the movie with expectations that Cloverfield Paradox would be of the same quality as its predecessors, taking away their chance to read reviews that might have otherwise steered them from watching it at all.

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Had it been released in a conventional theater setting, Cloverfield Paradox might have been dragged down by those negative reviews. However, Netflix's model seems more resistant to negative critical reviews than conventional theatrical releases. Despite immensely negative reviews, Bright streaming services most-watched titles has become one of the ever and ordered a sequel to the film. There's no telling whether Bright's negative reviews helped or hurt the film's overall viewership -- after all, who doesn't like a good trainwreck of a movie now and then? However, the company's quick-release strategy with Cloverfield Paradox ensured that negative reviews couldn't affect initial viewership one way or the other.

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Although Cloverfield Paradox isn't a very good movie, the way the marketing took advantage of the Super Bowl and bypassed traditional gatekeepers has helped make it a success it probably wouldn't have been in theaters. It's a pretty safe bet that Netflix will try a similar move in the future with one of its other properties. Let's just hope that next time the movie is, well... good.


Directed by Julius Onah, written by Oren Uziel and Doug Jung, and produced by J. J. Abram, The Cloverfield Paradox stars Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O’Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi.