From Forbes:

How dominant was Paramount in 2011? They not only won the global market share, they had both almost all of the big blockbuster franchise movies (Captain America, Thor, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Kung Fu Panda 2) and they had the “anti-blockbuster counterprogramming” in the form of J.J. Abrams’ Amblin-era sci-fi/horror homage. As a surprise tease for the 1980’s-set alien invasion melodrama, the commercial for Super 8 stood out as a non-franchise film starring actual humans in a mostly real world, a film that stood out as an old-school summer movie amid superheroes, robots and wizards. Yes, Paramount was selling the disease and the cure, not unlike the plot of Paramount’s Mission: Impossible II. The film was ironically only a moderate hit ($260 million on a $50 million budget) partially because the first wave of conventional blockbusters (Fast Five, Bridesmaids, Kung Fu Panda 2, X-Men: First Class) turned out to be unusually good. Ten years later, it’s a reminder that Abrams doesn’t need the Cloverfield IP to weave a throwback tale of wonder.