What a Deal: 5 Low-Budget Movie Gems That Earned a Fortune in Box Office
These ones prove that talent is much more important than budgets.
How much money do you need to make a good movie? This question seems to be an eternal one for filmmakers, but at the same time some of them are successful in creating quite inexpensive masterpieces.
Here are 5 low-budget flicks that became big hits, loved by Redditors.
1. The Blair Witch Project - $200,000–750,000 vs $248.6 million
First comes a cultish horror with a budget estimated under $1 million that still managed to rake in more than 200x its cost. The story about college filmmakers on their way to make a movie about a local myth is indeed a must-watch that is worth such a hype.
2. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) - $400,000 vs $46.1 million
You probably didn't know that one of the most iconic coming-of-age comedies was created on a tight budget. The film’s lead, Jon Heder, who portrayed the titular nerdy high-school student, was initially only paid $1,000 for his work on this hit.
3. Clerks (1994) - $230,000 vs $4.4 million
Next is Kevin Smith’s comedy gold, the success of which allowed the filmmaker to establish the whole Jay and Silent Bob franchise. You can observe a day in the lives of store clerks that is full of surprising discoveries and hilarious gags while watching it.
4. El Mariachi (1992) - $200,000 vs $2 million
Robert Rodriguez was initially notorious for proving himself with small independent projects. He managed to do it perfectly with this neo-Western that follows a traveling guitar player who ends up involved in a showdown of relentless local hit men.
5. Primer (2004) - $7000 vs $841,926
Last is a psychological sci-fi that cost only $7K, but offered truly a unique cinematic experience. It centered on a group of engineers who accidentally invent a device for time traveling and over the course of twenty years has acquired a cult following.
Source: Reddit