5 million people watched Netflix's 'trainwreck' of a new 'Cloverfield' movie in the first week, which has an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes

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February 15, 2018 10:46 PM

Critics are calling Netflix's "The Cloverfield Paradox" movie a "trainwreck." But 5 million people watched it.

Netflix released "The Cloverfield Paradox" right after the Super Bowl.
Critics called it a "trainwreck," and it has a 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
But people apparently watched it, as Nielsen has estimated five million people watched it in the first week.

People love watching "Cloverfield" movies, even when they are terrible.

According to new estimates by Nielsen, five million people worldwide watched Netflix's newest movie in the series, "The Cloverfield Paradox," in its first week of availability on the service. (Note: Netflix does not release official numbers, and has previously questioned the accuracy of third-party trackers.)

But even if the Nielsen numbers are just a rough gauge: That's still a ton of people for a movie that might have epically flopped in a traditional theatrical release.

Part of the mystique of this film was its release strategy.

Netflix released a trailer for "The Cloverfield Paradox" during the Super Bowl. And then it released the movie on Netflix right after the game. This was shocking given that, as of early January, Paramount was set to release the movie in theaters in April.

The reveal stunt was great, but unfortunately critics hated the movie. Right now, it has a 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The first movie, "Cloverfield" (2008), has a 77% rating, and the second movie, "10 Cloverfield Lane," has an impressive 90%.

But it doesn't seem to have bothered Netflix viewers, who have also watched Netflix's critically panned new Adam Sandler movies in droves (Netflix previously revealed.)

So why is "The Cloverfield Paradox" so bad?

We collected some of the rotten reviews from critics to give you an idea:

"A trainwreck of a sci-fi flick bent on extending a franchise that should have died a peaceful death almost exactly one decade ago."

The Hollywood Reporter

"Perhaps what makes The Cloverfield Paradox so frustrating is that it squanders the gifts it has been given."

Slashfilm

"The true paradox of this movie is that those enjoyably wild twists alone would've made this film a whole lot of fun to watch with a big multiplex audience, even as inconsistent and ultimately illogical it turns out to be."

The Playlist

"Once your plot literally establishes that anything can happen for no reason because alternate dimensions, there's no compelling need for script logic any more."

Forbes

"I had a blast making fun of this, and I didn't spend anything on gas money or tickets."

Thrillist

"In space, no one can hear you [fart noise]."

Film School Rejects

"It's Lost in 105 minutes-an unfolding array of neat, amusing, and uncanny ideas that drift into the ether once the writers realize they don't know how to end this thing and should probably look to their forebears."

Consequence of Sound

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