Budget: $400,000
“Napoleon Dynamite” is about an incredibly awkward teenage boy who lives with his grandma in Idaho. Jason Heder, who plays the title role, was only originally paid $1,000 to star in the comedy, which ended up grossing nearly $45 million in theatres. Heder, of course, renegotiated his contract and was able to get a percentage of proceeds after the film skyrocketed.
The movie was entirely filmed in Idaho and released at Sundance in 2004. It was received so well by audiences that it almost made the top 10 on Bravo’s list of the top 100 funniest movies of all time. Jared Hess, who both co-wrote and directed the film, probably didn’t imagine the enormous amount of success this strange little movie would see.
Friday the 13th
Budget: $600,000
The original "Friday the 13th" is definitely a classic horror movie and arguably one of the best slasher films ever made — and they did it all with a budget of less than $600,000. The gory slaughter-fest hit nearly $60 million at the box office and turned into an extremely successful franchise. Now, there are loads of Friday the 13th movies, including "Freddy vs. Jason," which combines this franchise with "Nightmare on Elm Street"’s Freddy Kruger.
The movie was written and directed by Victor Miller and was his highest-grossing movie of all time. Miller is still writing screenplays today and has a horror film called "Eden Falls." Although he didn’t write the scripts for any of the movies that came after the first, he’s still responsible for creating a cult classic.
28 Days Later
Budget: $6.6M
"28 Days Later" has made it on to pretty much every list of the best zombie movies of all time. It’s got a little bit of everything, along with some great acting (and action). It was filmed in 2002 and made in London with a budget of $6.6 million. Cillian Murphy stars as Jim and delivers a powerful performance alongside talented co-stars such as Naomie Harris and Megan Burns.
The film, which was written by Alex Garland, infuses classic zombie virus outbreak dread with a more modern spin on how the fight for survival plays out. Garland credits George Romero’s "Night of The Living Dead" as one of the main sources of inspiration for his own film, which brought in over $80 million in profit.
Star Wars
Budget: $11M
$11 million may seem like an insanely high amount of money, and it is on the high end of this list, but when you compare it to the $775 million profit "Star Wars" made — you can see why it made our list! George Lucas had his own production company at the time he put his masterpiece together, and after this film came out, his company (Lucasfilm) launched straight to success. Before "E.T." hit theaters, "Star Wars" was the single highest-grossing movie in history.
The cult classic turned into an uber-successful franchise with many episodes. The original film won an impressive 6 Academy Awards, including the awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, and Best Music/Original Score. George Lucas was also responsible for bringing the world the amazing Indiana Jones franchise — thank you, George! He ended up selling Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company in 2012.
The Hills Have Eyes
Budget: $230,000
It should come as no surprise that the 1977 cult classic "The Hills Have Eyes" made it onto this list. After all, it was directed by the king of horror himself, Wes Craven. This film came out before his "Nightmare on Elm Street Days," so he didn’t have quite the amount of funding that was available for those films. However, since "Last House on the Left" was such a success, one investor stepped in and offered up $230,000 for the film’s production.
The movie was made entirely in the Mojave Desert, using a camper and the open desert as the main locations throughout. The film made around $25 million in the box office and spawned a franchise that includes a recent remake of the original that was released in 2009.