Marketing for ‘Cloverfield Paradox’ wholly unique

While the area is still coming down from the high of an Eagles Super Bowl victory, some bowl viewers witnessed an enigmatic advertisement that flashed a brief 30-second spot for a movie with a hefty fan base behind it.

It's not atypical for big-name films to drop trailers during the game. In fact, it has become quite a tradition for film lovers to watch the game awaiting glimpses of what to expect on the big screen for the rest of the year.

This year, we were treated to peeks at the "Jurassic World" sequel, "Avengers: Infinity War," the latest "Mission: Impossible" installment, and "Solo: A Star Wars Story," among others.

But a 30-second spot for a new "Cloverfield" film caught many by surprise. First, the film "Cloverfield Paradox" was teased to premiere "soon" on Netflix; moments later, the ad announced that it would be available to stream directly after the game.

Netflix has been ramping up its schedule in the past few years. In December 2017, it premiered "Bright," a big-budget action film from Will Smith. The film reportedly cost about $90 million, but Netflix reports it was one of its most-viewed films on the platform.

Years ago, this direct-to-video approach would be considered a death knell for a film (and after struggling through a viewing of "Bright," that's certainly fitting). But Netflix was content with its return on investment (the company is notorious for not releasing stats, so there are no actual numbers on it) and has announced a sequel in the works.

Yet the "Cloverfield" name carries a certain cachet with film geeks, as it has been dissected, rewatched, and analyzed since it was released 10 years ago by a young producer named J.J. Abrams. The found-footage sci-fi film was promoted with a viral marketing campaign similar to that used by "The Blair Witch Project" almost a decade prior to it, and its open-ended conclusion left the potential for more mayhem in the future.

Then, in 2016, "10 Cloverfield Lane" was released. While not a sequel, the film was deemed by its creators as a "blood relative" of the original and tied a thrillingly claustrophobic storyline into the cinematic universe that heightened interest among audiences as to just what was next in store.

And just seconds after the Eagles celebrated their victory as Super Bowl champs, we found out, when Netflix made "Paradox" available for streaming.

The result? For the sake of the length of this article, it's safe to say that a quick, surprise release for free on Netflix is perhaps the best this mess of a film could have asked for. Riddled with sci-fi cliches and more mood swings than an angsty teen, "Paradox" is an incoherent patchwork that feels forcibly wedged into the existing "Cloverfield" lineage (and according to a recent Facebook interview, Abrams said that the film was, indeed, not originally planned to be an offshoot, but rather evolved into one during filming).

Regardless of the resulting film's merits, the marketing for "The Cloverfield Paradox" is wholly unique, for even with the rumored $50 million Netflix paid for the rights to the film, they have successfully sold the hype with just one 30-second Super Bowl spot.

And that is a real game-changer.