Tuesday, January 22, 2008

A final Cloverfield update... for now

It seems despite my strange and slightly hesitant enthusiastic endorsement of Cloverfield it looks like the masses have spoken. This film is a hit. Unqualified success. A monster movie smack dab 'on the map' as it were. ComingSoon reports that Cloverfield earned a whopping $46 million in it's four day opening weekend, shattering the previous MLK holiday weekend record set by Blak Hawk Down of $33 mil, and ultimately went on to score the biggest opening in January ever. And Paramount is thrilled lauding Cloverfield, and specifically its viral marketing campaign, as Vice Chairman Rob Moore said "this movie defines what we want to do at Paramount." High praise, but considering these are the kind of numbers any studio would be proud of in the summertime, it's well earned.

And what of the future? Are we going to get more Cloverfield? A sequel perhaps? I mean, I know the movie just came out, but I have to think they're considering it in light of its success. I'm sorry I can't find the interview now, but I know I read somewhere J.J. Abrams or director Matt Reeves saying how they'd kicked a few ideas around during post production, but nothing has been set in stone yet. If I remember correctly they were talking more about what it would be like to film the same attack, and tell the same story from another group of characters perspectives. Anyhow, I'm sure Paramount will be on top of that as soon as humanly possible.

One thing I didn't mention in my review is that if you do go and see Cloverfield there is one little easter egg sitting right at the end of the credits. So if you are going, I encourage you to stay until the very end. For me though I went and saw the easter egg and was still confused. So if like me you wanted to understand that treat better, just click on this link to reveal the BIG SPOILER. I encourage you not to look if you haven't seen the film yet though.

As a well timed license, probably with the dvd release, Hasbro has listed on their toyshop webpage that they will be offering what sound like a fantastic Cloverfield movie monster toy featuring a huge 70 points of articulation. The 14" tall toy will also come with some great accessories like the Statue of Liberty head, and should be available around the beginning of October. Just in time for Christmas, which is maybe a good thing as the one downside to the toy is the hefty pricetag of $99... anyone up for a group gift?

My final note on Cloverfield, is regarding the Slusho video contest. I have to suspect that I did NOT in fact win one of the top 5 spots, as no one has called me and the contest winners should've been notified by this past Friday. The Slusho website has been updated to say that the winners have been chosen and we should await their appearance online soon. The only odd thing about the whole shenanigan is that no one has stepped forward to tell the waiting throngs of fans that they have won. Or at least no one has said anything on the two best fan sites I visit, cloverfieldclues.com, and cloverfieldnews.com. That seems odd to me. Anyhow, I'm sure they would've told me if I won, so I'm going to assume I didn't :( I did however have a good time making my Very Slusho Xmas video, and have to admit that currently sitting on 2,359 Youtube views isn't such a bad place to be.

I will probably be back with more on Cloverfield one day, but for now I'm done. That is, until the sequel...
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