We knew Paramount was dropping a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows spot, but this 10 Cloverfield Lane commercial was a surprise. And considering A) the movie wasn't really announced until about three weeks ago and B) that $5 million-per-30 seconds price tag means the commercial probably cost 1/3-to-1/2 of whatever the movie cost to produce, I am impressed that they went for it. But the advantage is that said 10 Cloverfield Lane spot, which focuses on captive Mary Elizabeth Winstead, captor John Goodman, talk of an external crisis, and "something" (a monster?) happening/appearing right at the end, gets to be the so-called "normal" movie advertising tonight.
By that I mean it's not a superhero sequel, an animated whatever, a big-budget adaptation of an old 1980's comic book/cartoon, a franchise reboot, etc., etc. It's a real "movie" with actors being tense and only hints of any sort of outright fantastical material. If that sounds familiar to you, it's because Paramount played the same game in 2011 with Super 8. The J.J. Abrams-directed monster-in-the-dark fantasy stood out amid Transformers and Captain America trailers (yes, all three were Paramount at the time) as something more tangible and "real."
As impressive as the first First Avengers trailer was, and as "epic" as the first Dark of the Moon teaser was (while following the same structure as the fantastic Revenge of the Fallen teaser from 2009), Super 8 "won" the night by having the most unique trailer. In a Super Bowl filled with franchise plays, Super 8 felt like a real old-school movie and benefited accordingly. Now 10 Cloverfield Lane isn't going to top any viewer polls, and the film is far less important to Paramount than was Super 8 back in 2011, arriving not in the heart of the summer but rather in just over a month during an obscenely crowded weekend.
Seriously, there are six wide releases dropping on March 11th, so please forgive the various typos and omissions as I race to post a competent box office review accordingly. Anyway, we don't know much about 10 Cloverfield Lane, which may or may not be a sequel or a spin-off of the 2008 early-January smash Cloverfield. And with just over a month to go, I'd just assume keep it that way. By the way, although the film is produced by J.J. Abrams, you should know that it's written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, and Damien Chazelle and directed by Dan Trachtenberg.
