10 Cloverfield Lane managed something virtually impossible in modern Hollywood: Its plot and connection to 2008’s Cloverfield was kept a complete secret up to the day of its trailer release, and even then there was no way to know just how it connected to the previous film until people went to the theater to see it. But, now that the cat’s out of the bag, everyone is looking for possible Cloverfield connections in the next slate of Bad Robot movies coming out in the next few years. Today, we might have just found another one.
10 Cloverfield Lane was the surprise breakout sci-fi of last year, surprising audiences who were underwhelmed by its found-footage predecessor. While the Cloverfield series is already developing a third installment disconnected (maybe) from 10 Cloverfield Lane, Mary Elizabeth Winstead says she’s totally down to bring her character back.
Our ongoing celebration of the best from the world of film in 2016 continues with our ranking of the finest movie posters of the year. In the gallery above you’ll see our picks for the 25 best. They range from massive hits to to tiny indie releases; we decided not to limit our list just to huge commercial successes. We don’t determine a movie’s quality by its box office totals. Why should we determine a poster’s quality that way?
J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield universe is quickly becoming one of the more interesting cinematic universes. Instead of stringing together a series of connected sequels and spinoffs à la the Marvel and DC cinematic universes, the 2008 found footage thriller has spawned something a little more ambiguous. This year saw the surprise release of Bad Robot’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was less a sequel to the 2008 movie and more of a blood relative. And now we finally have confirmation of what the third film in the Clover-verse will be.
There’s almost no such thing as a surprise anymore. We’ve become saturated by a surplus of information, a culture obsessed with being in the know, constantly living in anticipation of an arrival. Not a day goes by when you don’t see a new movie trailer online, pass a TV show poster on your morning commute, or see a musician promote their upcoming album in a viral late night clip. We’re always informed of what’s up next, an awareness of the impending future that has driven the element of surprise to near extinction. But in 2016 something different happened in the entertainment world.
In news that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone with a child in their life, Zootopia held on to the number one spot at the box office this weekend and made it look effortless. And yet, 10 Cloverfield Lane’s second place opening is nothing to scoff at, especially for a modestly budged, small-scale thriller (although the “Cloverfield” in the title certainly helped).