Variety takes a look at the 68% box office decline of CLOVERFIELD in its second weekend. Thanks to its low-budget, not to mention overseas sales, the film will undoubtedly be profitable, but the article makes the point that its success tends to be driven more by advertising than audience satisfaction.

Paramount’s “Cloverfield”may have posted the biggest January opening of all time, but it’s turning out to be more of a marketing win than a runaway crowd pleaser at the box office. Pic plunged 68% in its second weekend at the domestic box office, putting “Cloverfield” in that category of films that rely on a huge opening weekend, akin to a much-hyped pay-per-view event. Yet even among those films, a 68% decline is on the high side, up there with drops seen by “The Hulk” and “Elektra” in their second frames.

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Most in Hollywood weren’t surprised by “Cloverfield’s” precipitous falloff. The pic, produced by J.J. Abramsand shot to resemble a homevideo, got a “C” cinema score, meaning moviegoers were lukewarm at best about what they saw. If anything, competitors applaud Paramount for opening “Cloverfield” to such big numbers through a well-executed marketing campaign that made the film a must-see, particularly for younger men and teen boys.

“They eventized the film. They had a finite audience and they burned through it quickly. Word-of-mouth takes care of the rest,” one distribution exec at a rival studio said.