Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams-produced monster movie, earned $41 million over the three-day weekend, according to box office estimates. With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day tomorrow and many of the film’s target demographic free, the movie is set to make a fair amount of money on Monday, too.
The movie only costs $35 million to make (I’ve heard some reports that say $25 million), and combined with the $41 million three-day take means:
- It has already made more than its production budget
- It beat out the re-release of Star Wars‘ $35.9 box office weekend that up until now has held the January box office record
- It beat out Black Hawk Down’s $33.6 MLK holiday weekend record.
- It goes to show that you can make a high quality film on a low budget.
Congrats to Cloverfield for once again showing Hollywood that you don’t need to spend $150 million to make big action movies.
