You Cannot Ignore the Genius of Netflix’s Cloverfield Paradox Super Bowl Ad
While most film production companies were playing checkers, Netflix was once again playing chess with their release of the new installment of the Cloverfield franchise.
On the biggest day for commercials in America, everyone put their best foot forward.
The first preview, for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, was debuted to an insane social media buzz, concluding with a release date of June 22nd, 2018.
Then the Marvel team showed they’re back and bigger than ever, with Avengers: Infinity Wars — their biggest project to date — debuting a short preview. (Virtually every hero that has been featured will show up to help save earth from Thanos). At the end of the short preview, the release date was shown: May 4, 2018.
Even Solo: A Star Wars Story, which has dealt with a series of issues, still lit Twitter on fire with its preview, and then came the date at the end: May 25, 2018.
Out of nowhere, Netflix dropped this.
It will go down as one of the most important commercials in the battle between theaters and streaming services, a huge uppercut that will be remembered for years.
This flick came out of nowhere; there was no buzz behind it whatsoever.
But an exciting commercial, believed to carry a $5 million price-tag, quickly ignited an interest. Then, as the spot came to a close, it dropped a hammer that traditional production companies can’t: instant availability.
J.J. Abrams is one of the biggest names in Hollywood today, particularly since revitalizing the Star Trek franchise and bringing a Star Wars renaissance to the 2010s.
But the Cloverfield series is an entirely different creature.
He didn’t build upon an already existing world; he created his own.
The decision to put a Cloverfield movie straight to Netflix is no small move.
Cloverfield made over $170 million, and 10 Cloverfield Lane, a smaller movie in scale and budget, made over $110 million.
Combine Abrams and money, which tend to go together, and you would have had plenty of suitors for the film.
Yet it still went straight to Netflix.
Even if the movie stinks (and the early reviews aren’t extremely favorable), it created enough buzz to ultimately be a success.
And Netflix showed once again that they’re a player to be reckoned with in the impending wars for film distribution supremacy.