10 movies that proved that

budget is not the most important thing for making hits

In modern cinema, money is of great importance.

You won’t surprise anyone with a budget of $2-3 million and,
according to filmmakers, you won’t interest the viewer.
But there are films that appear out of nowhere. Films, which attract the audience
and audience starts praising them.
Sometimes they come from one of the famous studios, but most of them are
independent productions.
However, they also occasionally get to the top of the list of films with the
highest profit.

*Helloween*
A horror film about serial killer Michael Myers, who escapes from a psychiatric
hospital,
is now considered a classic of the genre, which influenced subsequent horror.
In 2006, the Library of Congress added a tape to the National Register of Films, as
a movie,
"having cultural, historical, or aesthetic value."

However, the sponsor allocated very little money for this film
- and they remained from his previous project.
I had to save on everything: the props were made from improvised materials,
and the actors starred in things from their wardrobe said the sponsor.

But the commercial success was stunning, despite the lack of a massive advertising
campaign,
and triggered the emergence of a whole genre of films about serial killers chasing
teenagers.
Movie was created on a $300,000 budget, raked in $70 million worldwide.

*Open water*
Open water is psychological thriller based on real events: it was based on a case
that occurred in 1998
in Australia with the spouses Lonergan. Diving enthusiasts lag behind the boat and
find themselves alone on the high seas.
They are desperate to survive.

The film was shot with the money of the director and his wife
using a semi-professional digital camera. It cost them $ 120,000.
Later, the tape was bought by Lion’s Gate. It made $55 million when released in
2003.

*The Blair Witch Project*

The Blair Witch Project budget was $60,000. Later the film made an impressive $248
million.
The story of 3 college film students who disappeared without a trace
during the filming of the project about witches, formed the basis of an independent
picture.
The film was shot on amateur cameras in the form of a documentary
supposedly created by missing students. All the material worked out in 8 days,
and the dialogue in the film was an improvisation of the actors.

Here you will not find any special effects, or scenes of violence, or even musical
accompaniment.
Nevertheless, the film was highly appreciated by film critics and collected a
fabulous sum at the box office.

*Pi*
The first feature film directed by Darren Aronofsky tells the story of the gifted
scientist Max Cohen.
Mathematician many years trying to find and decipher the universal code by which
change all the courses of exchange of shares.
As he approaches the clue, he is pursued by powerful Wall Street businessmen.
It's a psychological horror thriller about the relationship between mathematical
regularity and irrational humanity.

Most of the meager budget film made contributions of $100 from friends and family
director.
When painting studio Artisan Entertainment bought for $1 million, each of the
depositors got back on the $150.
The film was shot on the streets of New York, without approval from the
authorities,
so someone always had to be "on guard" to report on the approximation the police.
Pi made $3.2 million of a budget of $68,000.

*The texas chain saw massacre*

The idea of the film came to the director Toub Hooper during a visit to a hardware
store
- the section where chainsaws were sold. The store was simply crowded with
visitors,
and the director came up with the idea that a chainsaw in his hands would greatly
facilitate his path.

The budget of the film was quite modest, $83,000 but the result met all
expectations.
The tape raised more than $30 million, 2 years after the release,
it received a prize at the International Festival of Fantastic Films in Avoriaz.

*Paranormal Activity*
Paranormal Activity is a prime example of how creativity can prevail through budget
limitations.
Paranormal Activity was only made for $15,000! It was shot using a handheld camera
in seven days.
It's a simple pitch: a found-footage horror film featuring stationary, security-
style cameras and some handheld work,
set out to chronicle a "real life" haunting. It almost felt voyeuristic in a way,
watching this footage of other people sleeping …
at least until the scary stuff starts happening.
The horror flick used its rickety style as a badge of honor, which managed to
positively terrify audiences the world over
as you really had to wonder: What's happening in my house while I'm asleep?
The film made an incredible $193 million and started a franchise with a handful of
sequels.

*The night of the living dead*

When the dead come back to life, a group of survivors
find themselves trapped inside a farmhouse with no obvious means of escape.
It is the first major modern independent horror movie - a revolution in the genre.
The film was made on a $114,000 budget
and wound up earning over 250 times its budget, making $18 million internationally.

*The evil dead*

Five friends take a weekend break to a hut in the woods, where they find some Book
of the Dead and an audio tape
that releases the demons that possess them from a nearby forest.
Females are the first to be possessed by demons to later settle into male actors,
resulting in the initially smitten and rolled-up Ash (Bruce Campbell),
now the only remaining human being, to deal with demonic forces that attack
unpredictably and insidiously.
There is no escape from the hut because the bridge on the only way to the hut is
demolished by the awakened demons
who do not allow anyone to leave.
Sam Raimi's horror grossed $29,4 million and was made for $350,000.

*Saw*
Saw is James Wan's directorial debut.
Two men wake up unconscious in an old, stark and dilapidated bathroom while a dead
man lies in a pool of blood between them.
The two are stranded each on their side of the bathroom and have a limited time to
break free by solving problems (puzzles).
Movie was filmed in just a few days with a budget of $1.2 million.
The movie's earnings were $103.9 million and has spawned eight sequels – making
them a Halloween tradition for most of the 2000s.

*The hills have eyes*

Inspired by an authentic 18th century Scotland case about a family of cannibals
clashing in the wild,
Wes Craven's film is about an average American family whose car breaks down in the
middle of the desert,
where "the hills have eyes." The eyes belong to a family of degenerates and
cannibals,
and the rest of the film consists of a cruel fight for survival.
Eat or be eaten; kill or be killed.
The budget of the movie was $350,000
still, it made $25 million at the box office and is considered to be one of the
classics.

*Mad Max*
George Miller's action movie “Mad Max” is called one of the best works in the
dieselpunk genre
(these are films that immerse you in a world based on technologies of the level of
two world wars).
The plot sends the viewer to the near future, where after the disaster, all life is
concentrated along the highways.
The road gives the heroes the opportunity to show their darkest sides. The budget
for the picture was $300,000.
The film was shot in 12 weeks, and the last editing and sound work was completed in
the director’s house:
Miller mounted the tape in the kitchen, and Byron Kennedy edited the sound in the
living room.
The movie's earnings were $378.9 million worldwide,
which was once enough to set the Guinness World Record for Most Profitable Film,
And has spawned three sequels