Paramount's surprise radio silent marketing campaign for "10 Cloverfield Lane" appears to be paying off as the tense thriller opened to a solid $1.8 million on 2,500 screens Thursday night. Meanwhile, Sony's spy spoof "The Brothers Grimsby" from Sasha Baron Cohen, the only other major release this weekend, didn't fare nearly as well, earning just $235,000 in its Thursday showings. It's hard to compete with a good old fashioned monster movie.
"10 Clvoerfield Lane's" numbers mirror that of 2011's "Super 8," which generated $1.5 million in previews and posted $35.5 million over its first weekend. J.J. Abrams directed "Super 8" and served as producer for both 2008's "Cloverfield" and its spiritual sequel "10 Cloverfield Lane." Other comparisons for all you number crunchers out there could be 2014's "Edge of Tomorrow," which took in $1.8 million on its Thursday opening and finished the weekend with $28.8 million, doing better overseas than it did domestic.
"10 Cloverfield Lane" stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman and John Gallagher Jr. The film revolves around Winstead's character, who awakens after a car accident to find herself being kept in an underground bunker by Goodman's character, who claims that an apocalyptic event has occurred in the outside world. Developed by Abrams' Bad Robot Productions studio, the film is meant to share the same DNA as "Cloverfield," though not directly tie in with the sleeper found footage hit of 2008.
Early responses to the film have been largely positive, with the aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 92 percent fresh rating at the moment. All of that good word of mouth could help the film out at the box office.
"10 Cloverfield Lane" is now on pace for a $20 million weekend at 3,391 locations. The film reportedly carried a $15 million production budget.
