The biggest compliment that anyone can give J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves for what they have done with CLOVERFIELD, is how much the movie feels like a huge 'event' release and an actual proper film. That's not to say this is just an experimental movie (it kinda is though) because there's still a lot riding on whether audiences have been drawn into this or not.
Yes, it's only been made on a fraction of what GODZILLA and other huge monsters movies were budgeted at but it still cost $30 million to make. That's a lot of money and is probably above average for a standard weekend release. A handheld film like this with no stars, a dodgy title which means nothing to you if you don't have an Internet connection and you never know... a $5 million opening could happen and that would be a disaster. Personally I think they have done a great job with the marketing for this and it shouldn't happen, but when GRINDHOUSE failed... you just never know these days...
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
