I still can't believe that 10 Cloverfield Lane exists. In this age where studios publicly schedule their movies a decade ahead of time, the fact that a major motion picture could remain unknown to the public until the premiere of its trailer, which itself debuted a mere weeks before the film hit theaters, is remarkable. But thankfully, the spiritual successor to Cloverfield does exist, and it's one of the best-reviewed films of 2016. So for people who haven't seen it yet, you're probably wondering when 10 Cloverfield Lane will be on Netflix so you can see what all the fuss is about.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it probably won't be on Netflix. At least not any time in the next few years. Netflix doesn't distribute content on a movie by movie basis; the company has deals in place with various studios that dictate what they can stream. For instance, the major distribution deal Netflix signed with Disney back in 2012 finally goes into effect this September, meaning that new Disney releases will start hitting the service. 10 Cloverfield Lane is distributed by Paramount, like The Wolf of Wall Street and the Transformers movies. If you recall, those films used to be on Netflix, but they suddenly disappeared en masse last year. So what happened between Netflix and Paramount?
For several years, Netflix had a distribution deal with premium cable channel Epix. Epix is partly owned by Paramount, and thus reserves first window rights when it comes to that studio's releases. But when Netflix's deal with Epix expired in August of 2015, the streaming service decided not to renew its contract, instead preferring to invest more in creating original content. So where does that leave the streaming options for Paramount movies like 10 Cloverfield Lane? Will people have to sign up for cable and Epix in order to stream these movies?
Nah. As soon as Netflix and Epix parted ways, Hulu swept in and struck a deal with the network. Amazon Prime has also had a deal with Epix since 2012. That's why if you were to check Hulu or Amazon Prime right now, you'd see a number of Paramount releases from last year that are already available for streaming, like The Age of Adaline and Hot Pursuit. So odds are that 10 Cloverfield Lane will arrive on both Hulu and Amazon Prime sometime in the near future, so now the question is when.
If it follows in the footsteps of other recent new releases, 10 Cloverfield Lane will probably be available to stream on Hulu and Amazon Prime about a year after its theatrical release date. So since the movie premiered on March 11 of this year, it will likely start streaming in early spring of next year. But what if you don't want to wait that long? Well, the movie is already available for purchase in digital HD from places like iTunes and Amazon, and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray (and available for digital rental) on June 14.
So even though Netflix probably won't be getting 10 Cloverfield Lane, there will still be plenty of other ways to stream the acclaimed film.
Images: Paramount Pictures; Giphy
