Genius $172M Sci-Fi Horror Movie That Launched A Divisive Trilogy Getting New Streaming Home 18 Years Later

Nearly 20 years after kickstarting one of the most innovative and divisive trilogies in the genre, a modern sci-fi classic is getting a new streaming home.

Developed by producer J.J. Abrams, writer Drew Goddard and director Matt Reeves, Cloverfield brought a found-footage approach to the monster horror movie genre, revolving around a group of friends in New York City who find their celebration of one of their impending moves to Japan for a new job interrupted by a creature attacking the city. When one of the group becomes trapped on the other side of the city, they all race across the increasingly dangerous terrain in the hopes of escaping together alive.

Now, 18 years after the movie became a critical and commercial hit, Cloverfield is getting a new streaming home on Paramount+. The sci-fi thriller, which was previously available for streaming on MGM+ and FuboTV, will change platforms beginning February 1. It will join its trilogy successor, 10 Cloverfield Lane, which made the jump to Paramount+ on January 1.

Led by Looking Through Water's Michael Stahl-David, Walker's Odette Yustman, Deadpool's T.J. Miller, The Resident's Jessica Lucas and Zero Day's Lizzy Caplan, Cloverfield was originally best known for its viral marketing campaign hyping up the movie's secretive plot and monster. This campaign worked in a major way for the film, as it brought in a massive $172 million worldwide haul against its reported $30 million production budget.

Also garnering largely positive reviews, the film ended up springboarding Reeves into filmmaking stardom after his prior success on Felicity, leading to his current work overseeing the Robert Pattinson-led Batman universe. More notably was its launching of an anthology trilogy of Cloverfield films, beginning with the Dan Trachtenberg-helmed 10 Cloverfield Lane, which set the franchise's Rotten Tomatoes record with a 91% approval rating from critics, and followed by the widely panned Cloverfield Paradox in 2018.

Though audiences have been generally favorable towards the first two installments, this standalone approach has drawn some division over the near-20 years since the first film arrived. Given the original Cloverfield ended on a cliffhanger regarding its creature's fate, some have remained hopeful of getting a more definitive conclusion to said story. Additionally, the lack of more direct explanations for how the latter two films connect to the original left some wanting more.

Despite some of this division, the 2008 movie getting a new streaming home on Paramount+ comes at the perfect time for the franchise. After a few years of dormancy following Paradox's muted critical response, Abrams has been steadily putting together a fourth Cloverfield movie, which he's said will be a direct sequel to the original. While Reeves has remained mum on what to expect from the next installment, it is also known that Hallow Road's Babak Anvari is set to direct, with Black Doves' Joe Barton writing the script.

Given the overall secrecy of the franchise, it's unclear where in the production process the fourth film is, with the only update coming from Anvari in early 2025 as he expressed his excitement for the vision of the sequel. However, with Abrams and Paramount taking a very sudden surprise approach to marketing each installment, Cloverfield joining its immediate successor on Paramount+ could be coming at the perfect time to build anticipation among viewers for the fourth movie.