By Chris Snellgrove | Published
You may have fallen asleep The Cloverfield Paradox when it first came out, but this sequel was much more than the third film of the innovative sci-fi franchise. When you stream this film on Netflix, you are doing more than watching the story of astronauts who must survive in a completely unimaginable situation. And watch the film whose clever marketing techniques ended up changing the history of the movie.
What The Cloverfield Paradox actually about? The plot focuses on a group of astronauts who conduct experiments on a space station to help solve our planet's growing energy problem. After using the particle accelerator, the Earth seems to disappear completely, leaving them to quickly discover what happened and hope for hope that they will be able to return home.
The Cloverfield Paradox Didn't Start Out as a Cloverfield Movie
Part of what makes 2018 The Cloverfield Paradox the most interesting thing is that it was not originally written as a Cloverfield movie. The directorial debut of the JJ Abrams films Cloverfield, called Cloverfieldwas released in 2008 and involved a giant alien monster invading the world and destroying entire cities.
Cloverfield Paradox started based on Oren Uziel's script God Particlebut during production, Cloverfield creator JJ Abrams saw an opportunity to connect this new film to his franchise and create a larger cinematic universe. Ironically, this happened with the previous film as well 10 Cloverfield Lanewhich was developed from the text of The Cellara film that was originally unrelated to the Cloverfield franchise.
If nothing else, The Cloverfield Paradox worth checking out because of the stars involved. Bradley Cooper does some killer voice work, and we also get another stellar performance (or should that be star performance) from John Goodman. Mary Elizabeth Winstead also stars in this film. Among these is his excellent performance in that forgettable prelude Somethinghe established his science fiction facts long before he joined Ashoka.
Changing the Course of Film History Through Marketing
When it comes to marketing The Cloverfield Paradoxthe new film took direct inspiration Cloverfield. Like that original movie, the sequel used a crowdsourced marketing campaign that provided important backstory about some of our main characters. To access and understand this backstory, however, fans had to piece together a number of puzzles, including a strangely addictive virtual reality game.
Viral marketing and ARG elements were a great way to attract a very dedicated fan base, but what exactly is marketing? The Cloverfield Paradox more was its Super Bowl trailer.
No one knew that the trailer would drop during the big game, and the trailer also surprised fans by confirming the final name of the film and the fact that it will be streaming on Netflix. The biggest surprise, however, was that the film was available to stream as as soon as the game is overwhich means Netflix subscribers who enjoyed the trailer don't have to wait to hear the entire movie.
When I look back, The Cloverfield Paradox changed the history of movies by changing the way studios market movies and the way audiences watch them. Almost a decade ago, the film's surprise release on Netflix gave audiences a glimpse of a future dominated by digital movie distribution. If you'd like to experience that future for yourself, all you have to do is stream The Cloverfield Paradox on Netflix today.
