There have been many films over the years that have made astronomical amounts at the box office in comparison to the original shoe string budget they were made on.
This goes to show that you don't need millions of dollars to make the motion picture classic.
1979, a little known actor known as Mel Gibson quickly became a household name when he starred in Mad Max. At the time, nobody knew who is was and did not think that on a budget of around $650,000, it would be a hit. The film soon became one of the most popular Australain movies ever netting $100,000,000 at the box office and spawned a series of sequels and even a reboot.
Sometimes referred to as one of the original and classic horror movies, Halloween was released in 1978 and produced on a budget of just $325,000. It took $60,000,000 at the worldwide box office producing a new generation of movie goers who wanted to be scared at every turn.
Not all low budget films had a string of sequels milking the franchise. In 2004 a little known actor called John Heder played Napoleon Dynamite in the film of the same name. The coming of age film was produced with a small budget of just just $400,000 but scooped an impressive $46,000,000 during its cinema release.
Their are plenty of other films that have done the impressive with a small production value including The Blair Witch Project that was made for $60,000 and netted a whopping $248,000,000 at the box office.
In 2007, Paranormal Activity was released pulling in movie goers to watch a film made with CCTV and handheld camcorders. Taking a total of $193,000,000 worldwide, making the $15,000 production values look like pocket change.
This goes to show that you don't always need a giant production company or multi-million dollar special effects to get the people into cinema seats to watch a film.
