The third installment of the Cloverfield franchise was released on Netflix last night immediately following Super Bowl LII. The release became the talk of the town seeing as ‘Paradox’ was not even announced until yesterday! Yes, Paramount Pictures and Netflix announced and released a film on the same day.

The Cloverfield franchise is known for its pretty unheard of releases. The original film which was released in 2008 had a viral marketing campaign which teased the start of a new monster movie franchise. The ‘found footage’ film hit theaters and stunned the world grossing $170 million on a $25 million budget. Next, came 2016’s ’10 Cloverfield Lane’. ‘Lane’ was released in theaters a couple months after the announcement, a seemingly precursor to yesterday’s Beyonce-esque drop. ‘Lane’ was a movie that was already in development, but when producer JJ Abrams got involved flipped it to further the Cloverfield franchise.

‘The Cloverfield Paradox” was a long rumored film previously known as ‘God Particle’. The head of Paramount Pictures clearly was not confident in a theatrical release so chose to release on Netflix. The hashtag #CloverfieldParadox instantly trended on Twitter following Sunday’s TV spot. The hype train began and fans were waiting for the game to be over to get the chance to see the next installment in this franchise that promised some answers to the questions raised in 2008’s original.

After watching the film it’s clear why the final product was released on Netflix as opposed to in theaters. “The Cloverfield Paradox” was an enjoyable film, but felt like a rushed attempt at capitalizing on the growing franchise. It is admirable to see the studio want to keep the films going in wider areas then seen before, but this feels like a bump in the road.

The film stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo, Daniel Bruhl and many more. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay tweeted her encouragement for the film saying,

“Woman of color-led, sci-fi thriller released worldwide day + date w/ big Netflix muscle for black director, his super producer + POC cast. No advance press, ads, trailer. Straight to the people. Gamechanger. Congrats to helmer #JuliusOnah + my dears JJ, Gugu, David. #Cloverfield”

This movie is most definitely a game changer but hopefully the next time we see a release like this it is for a movie with a little more to say.