Low-Budget Movies That Killed It At The Box Office

Success in the movie business is all about relativity. Comic book movies have been all the rage for more than two decades because they can make a lot of money, but those movies and similar franchise blockbusters are also tremendously expensive to make, often costing $200 million or more in the modern era. Relatively few movies rise to the level of mass appeal to justify such an investment. For everything else, it comes down to making the right movie for the right price given its intended audience.

Every so often, a movie comes around that was made for practically nothing and entered theaters with minimal expectations, only to blow those expectations right out of the water. Sometimes that is apparent on opening weekend. Sometimes it takes years to realize a low-budget flick became a massive success. In any event, when it does happen, it can be pretty special. So, let’s have a look at some low-budget movies throughout history that have made millions at the box office, shall we?

George Lucas will always be known best as the man who gave the world “Star Wars,” which is one of the most valuable franchises on planet Earth. It’s also worth pointing out that 1977’s “Star Wars: A New Hope” was indeed a relatively low budget movie that made millions upon millions of dollars. But before that, in 1973, Lucas made “American Graffiti,” a movie with a budget of less than $1 million that couldn’t be more distant from the epic sci-fi world of “Star Wars.” Even so “American Graffiti” was a huge hit, and one that paved the way for Lucas to eventually make his game-changing space-set saga.

With a cast that included the likes of Harrison Ford and Ron Howard, the story centers on a group of teens driving around for one last night after graduating from high school. Universal Pictures released “American Graffiti” in theaters in August of 1973. In the years since its original release, it has pulled in an astounding $140.5 million worldwide, with most of that, more than $115 million, coming from U.S. audiences. If we take merchandise sales and home video out of the equation, one could argue that, dollar-for-dollar, this is the best return on investment play of Lucas’ career. For a movie that doesn’t get talked about all that much these days, it’s remarkable just how successful “American Graffiti” was in its day.

There is nothing — truly nothing — quite like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in the history of cinema. Are there other off-kilter musicals that have cult followings? Absolutely. “The Phantom of the Paradise” is another terrific example. But when it comes to off-kilter musicals that have had a long shelf life and have made a tremendous amount of money along the way, director Jim Sharman’s independent sensation stands alone. Originally released by Fox in 1975, the film initially garnered very little interest and seemed doomed to flop status and, at best, finding a cult following down the line. Instead, something pretty amazing happened.

Thanks to midnight screenings that started in 1976, “Rocky Horror” began developing a true following, which only gained momentum in the years that followed. It resulted in rowdy screenings that include audience participation and a singular experience. This tale of a couple who winds up at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter became so much more than just a hit musical. Against a reported budget of $1.4 million, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has earned a staggering $115.7 million to date — but since it still plays in theaters every single year, all of the time, so that total is always growing. It has, essentially, never completely left theaters. That’s incredible to consider.

Sylvester Stallone is inseparable from the history of American cinema. As an action star in the ’80s and ’90s, from roles in franchises like “Rambo” and “The Expendables,” he’s had a long, fruitful career. His first big break came in 1976 with “Rocky,” the story of an underdog boxer that also resulted in one of his biggest franchises. It was also a very low-budget movie written by Stallone that the studio had no faith in. Despite all of that, it was not only a smash success at the box office, but one that went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars and become a cherished, enduring classic.

With a reported budget of just $1 million, “Rocky” has made $225 million worldwide to date. Beyond that, it spawned a nine-movie franchise that is still going today thanks to the “Creed” films, and has made nearly $2 billion at the box office over the years. We’re not just talking about a single movie here; we’re talking about a hugely consequential franchise that has consistently brought in money for nearly 50 years. That original $1 million investment was money very well spent.

George Miller delivered one of the greatest action movies of all time when “Mad Max: Fury Road” hit theaters in 2015. It’s one of the most roundly-beloved pieces of populist cinema of the last 25 years, if not ever. But decades before Miller took us to “Fury Road” and its brand of big-budget spectacle, he birthed this universe in 1979’s inventive, ultra-low-budget “Mad Max.” With Mel Gibson starring as a man making his way through the remnants of a world ravaged by an ill-defined apocalypse, it became not just a successful movie, but one of the most profitable movies of all time.

The budget for this film has never been fully hammered out, but at most it cost $450,000. It ended up making $100 million worldwide, making “Mad Max” one of the biggest surprises in box office history. It also led to a series of sequels starring Gibson, as well as the eventual revival that led to “Fury Road” and “Furiosa.” While most of the “Mad Max” movies were, on some level, successful, none of them came close to matching the runaway success of the original.

In the realm of successful, long-running horror franchises, there are few that can compete with “Friday the 13th.” Only the biggest of the big, such as “Halloween,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” and “Saw,” are in the same ballpark. Since we typically associate the slasher series with Jason Voorhees, it’s easy to forget the original 1980 classic hardly features Jason at all. Rather, it’s Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mom, who was revealed as the killer. She, along with a cast of young up-and-comers playing camp counselors at a lake where a tragedy occurred, led Sean S. Cunningham’s low-budget slasher to tremendous success.

Paramount Pictures put up the $550,000 for the production budget in an attempt to get in on the emerging slasher craze. Even if we adjust for inflation, that’s virtually nothing by Hollywood standards. The film ended up pulling in nearly $60 million worldwide to date, spawning a series of sequels that were released annually for nearly a decade. The jury is still out on when we’ll get a new “Friday the 13th” movie as Jason has been dormant for some time now, but this simple yet beloved entry in the now-well-trodden horror sub-genre paved the way for hundreds of millions — if not billions — to be made in the wake of its success.

No other movie on this list can claim to be quite as influential as “The Blair Witch Project.” Unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1999, the film jump-started the found footage phenomenon and, in a pre-internet age, cultivated a must-see stamp of approval from moviegoers as word of mouth dictated that it must be seen to be believed. Because the film was so gritty and so raw, it had this air of danger to it and even had some questioning whether or not it was real. Again, this was before people could Google things with ease.

“The Blair Witch Project” started relatively slow at the box office, released on just a couple dozen screens in the U.S. at first. But as word of mouth grew, it expanded and became one of the biggest hits of the year. The little horror film that could finished its run with $248.6 million worldwide. Given that Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick made the film for just $60,000 (before eventual post-production costs), it is oft-cited as one of the most profitable films ever made. The real tragedy of “The Blair Witch Project” is that the cast didn’t participate in its success, but it did spawn two sequels, with another film on the way.

Rom-coms have been a staple of American movie making for decades, from Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan leading classics like “Sleepless in Seattle,” to “Anyone But You” becoming a recent, surprise breakout hit. Yet, in the history of the genre, one film stands tall above the rest. That film is 2002’s “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” which was a big fat indie hit in its day, becoming the biggest rom-com in the history of rom-coms. It also had a remarkably small budget with no A-list stars, running in defiance of the general formula for these sorts of pictures. More than 20 years later, it’s still remarkable what it managed to accomplish.

Written by Nia Vardalos, who also stars in the lead role, the film was released by IFC Films in April 2002 on just over 100 screens. It was the definition of a slow burn as it would be nearly four months before the film would play on over 1,000 screens on a single weekend. But “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” just kept earning and earning, week after week. It played in theaters for a full year and, even though it never once topped the charts, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” finished its run with an astounding $374.8 million worldwide. Not bad for a movie with no big stars and a mere $5 million budget.

There is a lot of horror on this list, partially because it’s one of the few genres where a good idea can find an audience without costing a lot of money. Some ingenuity and some good scares can go a long way. This was demonstrated by modern horror master James Wan with the micro-budget “Insidious” in 2010. After kicking off his career with the huge hit that was “Saw,” Wan initially struggled to replicate that success. So, he scraped together $1.5 million to make this supernatural tale about a family trying to protect their son from an evil entity. It paid off handsomely.

Picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures, Wan’s little horror film was met with warm reviews and an even warmer response at the box office. “Insidious” ended up making $99.5 million worldwide, resulting in one of the best budget-to-box office ratios in history. Like any horror success, this one got a series of sequels and spin-offs. Individually, it’s a big success, but it also opened the door for much more.

“Moonlight” is largely considered to be one of the best movies of the 2010s. Directed by Barry Jenkins, it went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, even though “La La Land” created a great deal of confusion on that front. In any event, it made Jenkins an A-list filmmaker and gave Mahershala Ali his first of two Oscar wins, cementing him as one of the greatest actors of his generation. And yet, this wasn’t some big (or even mid) budget play by a studio chasing awards season glory. Rather, it was a scrappy, low-budget effort that not only became a critical darling, but a box office success as well.

Starting out slow in the fall of 2016 before eventually becoming a word-of-mouth critical hit, “Moonlight” made a truly impressive $65 million worldwide. Particularly in the streaming era and in the aftermath of the pandemic, it’s hard to picture a movie about a young Black man struggling with his identity doing numbers like this. The eventual Oscar wins also helped make A24 the powerhouse that it is now, with the studio proving that they could do more than garner critical acclaim. They could deliver results at the box office too.

Art the Clown began his journey as a cinematic slasher in a pair of short films before making the jump to features in 2013’s very low-budget anthology “All Hallows’ Eve.” Director Damien Leone then made the first “Terrifier” in 2016, in which Art was the star. That movie was, at best, a cult favorite and made little impact at the box office whatsoever. That’s what makes 2022’s “Terrifier 2” so genuinely surprising. Made for an ultra-tiny budget of just $250,000, Leone crafted an ultra-gory, unrated slasher film that clocks in at well over two hours in length. In defiance of all traditional Hollywood logic, it became a sizable hit.

After a bigger-than-expected opening on a small number of screens, “Terrifier 2” expanded wide in North America and also ended up securing a release overseas. When all was said and done, the film had made over $15 million worldwide. It’s not a massive number by Hollywood standards, but relative to its budget and given the grizzly nature of the film itself, it remains stunning. More importantly, it paved the way for an even bigger hit in the form of “Terrifier 3,” which now stands alone as the highest-grossing unrated movie in history. That movie represents the culmination of a singular, crazy journey for a horror franchise like no other.