Budget: $300,000
“Mad Max” is a dystopian thriller from the late 1970s that stars Mel Gibson. The movie was filmed for an incredible $300,000, and yet it ended up pulling in around $100 million. That’s an impressive number now, much more in 1979. The finances were so incredible that the film landed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the best ratio of profit to budget.
Decades later, “Mad Max: Fury Road” was produced for a much, much higher budget of $150 million. It also made even more money than the first, hitting over $350 million in sales at the box office. There have been more movies in the Mad Max franchise made to date, each of which has made Rotten Tomatoes’ “certified fresh” list.
American Graffiti
Budget: $750,000
"American Graffiti" was the 2nd film ever directed by George Lucas. His more recent movies have a considerably larger budget than the $750,000 he could muster up for this one back in 1973. Around the same time as this movie came out, he was developing his “space opera,” which of course turned into Lucas’ masterpiece franchise — "Star Wars."
"American Graffiti" ended up making over $110 million, which prompted executives in Hollywood to start paying more attention to the talented upcoming director. The film was also nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but unfortunately ended up losing out to other films around that time, such as "The Sting."
The Evil Dead
Budget: $100,000
"The Evil Dead" is another creepy cult classic that began as a short film back in 1981. The short film attracted financiers who backed the feature-length version, which ended up pulling in nearly $30 million in the box office — quite a feat for a movie that was made in the early ’80s! The king of horror himself, Stephen King, absolutely loved the movie and helped creators land an awesome distribution deal with New Line Cinema.
The film, which was both written and directed by Sam Raimi, was shot mainly using a cabin deep in the woods in Tennessee. It’s been followed up with a few sequels and spinoffs, along with the television series "Ash vs. The Evil Dead."
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Budget: $1.35M
"Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" is a British crime thriller from 1998 directed by the one and only Guy Ritchie. You may know Ritchie’s name from when he was married to Madonna, but he’s also a talented director. "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" was his first feature film and wound up launching his career. But he wasn’t the only one who benefited from the success of the movie.
Jason Statham acted as “Bacon” in the film, which ended up kickstarting his career as well. It had a fairly small budget of just $1.35 million but ended up making nearly $30 million back. Later, Ritchie’s filmed mega-hits such as "Sherlock Holmes," and Statham has made his way onto the A list, acting in blockbusters like "Crank," "The Transporter," and "The Meg."
Swingers
Budget: $200,000
It’s kind of hard to imagine Vince Vaughn starring in a movie with a budget of less than $1 million, but back in the 1990s, he wasn’t exactly the A-lister he is today. He and Jon Favreau starred as two wannabe actors in Hollywood trying to live life in the fast lane after moving to Los Angeles from New York City. The dark comedy was filmed with a modest $200,000 budget but ended up making about $25 million at the box office.
Plus, it can be credited with launching Vaughn and Favreau’s careers, along with that of the film’s director, Dough Liman. The film was also written by Favreau, who happened to write the entire thing in less than a month. He only actually cast himself in the film due to the lack of funding to hire more actors.