10 Cloverfield Lane

John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Gallagher Jr.

10 Cloverfield Lane originated from an "ultra low budget" spec script penned by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken, titled The Cellar.[9][10] The Tracking Board included the script in "The Hit List" of 2012[10] – an annually published list of spec scripts written within the year that have impressed its voting members.[11] In 2012, Paramount Pictures bought the script and commenced further development under Bad Robot Productions for Insurge Pictures, Paramount's specialty label for films with a micro-budget. When Bad Robot became involved, the film was assigned the codename Valencia to keep exact details of the production a secret.[12]

Damien Chazelle was brought in to rewrite Campbell and Stuecken's draft and direct the film. Chazelle dropped out from directing when his Whiplash project received funding.[6] On April 3, 2014, it was reported production for Valencia was greenlit to begin in the fall of 2014, under the direction of Dan Trachtenberg with the latest draft being written by an uncredited Daniel Casey.[13] A budget of about $5 million was reported to be expected, in keeping with the mandate of Paramount's Insurge division of producing micro-budgeted films.[14]

On July 8, 2014, Variety reported John Goodman was in negotiations to star in the film.[15] On August 25, 2014, they reported Mary Elizabeth Winstead had entered negotiations,[16] and on September 22, 2014, John Gallagher Jr. reportedly joined the cast.[17]

During production, the filmmakers noticed core similarities to Cloverfield,[18] and decided to make the picture what Abrams calls "a blood relative" or "spiritual successor" of that film.[19][20] "The spirit of it, the genre of it, the heart of it, the fear factor, the comedy factor, the weirdness factor, there were so many elements that felt like the DNA of this story were of the same place that Cloverfield was born out of," said Abrams. In other interviews he explained: "Those characters and that monster [from Cloverfield] are not in this movie, but there are other characters and other monsters,"[20] and "This movie is very purposefully not called Cloverfield 2, because it's not Cloverfield 2, [...] So if you're approaching it as a literal sequel, you'll be surprised to see what this movie is. But while it's not what you might expect from a movie that has the name Cloverfield in it, I think you'll find that you'll understand the connection when you see the whole thing."[21][22][23] Winstead and Gallagher mentioned that during production they were aware that the film had thematic similarities to Cloverfield, but did not learn that there would be an official connection until they were informed of the chosen title, only a few days before the release of the trailer.[24] Abrams came up with the title after finishing Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[25][26]

In a March 2015 interview, a few months after production wrapped, Winstead was asked about her experience during Valencia and described it as a "really contained film", reiterating the premise of The Cellar about a woman being trapped with her mysterious savior in a supposed post-nuclear fallout world.[27] Later in the month, Insurge Pictures was reported to have been dismantled and its staff absorbed by its parent company. Insurge's only film that had yet to be released was reported to be Valencia.[28] Speaking of rewrites that took place during production, Winstead called them "nothing that was major".[29]

During an interview with Abrams to promote 10 Cloverfield Lane, he said the creative team behind the original had some ideas on developing Cloverfield 2, but the release of films such as Godzilla and Pacific Rim led them to abandon them as they found the concept of kaiju films played out.[21]

Principal photography on the film began on October 20, 2014, in New Orleans, Louisiana.[30] Filming took place in chronological order on only one set.[31] Scenes involving explosions, fire, and smoke were shot in early December 2014 in Hahnville, Louisiana.[32] Filming ended on December 15, 2014.[33]

Bear McCreary composed the music for the film.[31] The soundtrack was digitally released on March 11, 2016.[34]

10 Cloverfield Lane grossed $72.2 million in the United States and $38.1 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $110.2 million.[5]

In the United States and Canada, the film made $1.8 million from its Thursday night previews at 2,500 theaters,[39][40][41] and $8 million on its first day (including Thursday previews).[42] In its opening weekend, it earned $24.7 million, finishing in second place at the box office behind Zootopia ($51.3 million), which was in its second weekend.[43]

Outside North America, 10 Cloverfield Lane received a staggered release,[44] across 54 countries.[45] It earned $1.5 million in its opening weekend from six international markets with a bulk of it coming from Australia ($1 million).[44] Overall, the top openings were in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($2.2 million), South Korea ($1.7 million), and France ($1.4 million).[46][47]

On Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 312 critic reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, solidly crafted, and palpably tense, 10 Cloverfield Lane makes the most of its confined setting and outstanding cast—and suggests a new frontier for franchise filmmaking."[48] According to Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 43 critics, the film received "generally favorable reviews".[49] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.[50]

Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times gave 10 Cloverfield Lane four stars out of four, commending the film as "continually gripping and extremely engrossing ... [Dan Trachtenberg] helmed this film with artistry, imagination and skillful precision."[51] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times praised the cast's performance and Jeff Cutter's cinematography, while writing: "Sneakily tweaking our fears of terrorism, '10 Cloverfield Lane,' though no more than a kissing cousin to its namesake, is smartly chilling and finally spectacular. A sequel is virtually a given."[52] Alan Scherstuhl of the Village Voice also praised the acting and technical aspects, but wrote that the film "is less compelling in terms of character and meaning."[53]

In a mixed review for Slant, Chuck Bowen found a lack of character development between the three leads, and labeled the film's ending as anticlimactic. Bowen also writes: "The film hits its expositional narrative marks and nothing else ... 10 Cloverfield Lane will almost immediately evaporate from the mind, before J.J. Abrams commences in selling you the same thing all over again."[54] Soren Andersen of the Seattle Times, who gave 10 Cloverfield Lane one and half stars out of four, similarly criticized the film's ending, labeling it as "full-bore" and "Too little. Too late."[55] James Verniere of the Boston Herald disapproved of the characters and pacing, and he ultimately described the film as "a crummy, low-rent, intellectually bereft thriller."[56]