Mad Max (1979)
Budget: $300,000
Box Office: $99,750,000
Profit %: 33,150%
* launched George Miller and Mel Gibson careers and Mad Max franchise
Which one of these select wildly successful low budget ($250,000 < $1,500,000) movies* is your favorite? * Movies with a minimum 6.0 IMDb user rating, excludes micro-budget (<$250,000) films and uses just one type of movie income stream (box office) for comparison.
Vote in the companion poll: Micro Budget Movies That Paid Off Big
Budget: $300,000
Box Office: $99,750,000
Profit %: 33,150%
* launched George Miller and Mel Gibson careers and Mad Max franchise
Budget: $995,000
Box Office: $225,000,000
Profit %: 22,513%
* launched Sylvester Stallone career and Rocky franchise
Budget: $1,000,000
Bx Office: $51,525,171
Profit %: 5,023%
* career elevating role for Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson
Budget: $360,000
Box Office: $60,000,000
Profit %: 16,567%
* breakthrough role for Jack Nicholson
Budget: $777,000
Box Office: $115,000,000
Profit %: 14,701%
* career elevating role for Harrison Ford, Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Suzanne Somers, Charles Martin Smith and Cindy Williams
Budget: $325,000
Box Office: $47,000,000+
Profit %: 14,362%
* breakthrough role for Jamie Lee Curtis and launched Halloween franchise
Budget: $500,000
Box Office: $59,000,000
Profit %: 11,700%
* launched Friday 13th movie franchise
Budget: $400,000
Box Office: $46,118,097
Profit %: 11,430%
* launched Jared Hess and Jon Heder careers
Budget: $300,000
Box Office: $30,859,000
Profit %: 10,186%
* launched Tobe Hooper career and TCSM franchise
Budget: $1,350,000
Box Office: $28,172,868
Profit %: 1,987%
* launched Guy Ritchie career
Budget: $1,200,000
Box Office: $24,741,667* US Box Office only
Profit %: 1,962
* Steven Soderbergh directorial debut, US career box office $1.0b
Budget: $900,000
Box Office: $17,385,830
Profit %: 1,832%
* breakthrough for Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan careers
Budget: $1,200,000
Box Office: $103,911,669
Profit %: 8,559%
* launched James Wan career and Saw film franchise
Budget: $700,000
Box Office: $11,830,611
Profit %: 1,590%
Budget: $400,000
Box Office: $5,028,948
Profit %: 1157%
* launched multiple film careers: John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman and Monty Python film franchise
Budget: $500,000
Box Office: $4,242,978
Profit %: 749%
* launched Gareth Edwards career (ie. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016))
Budget: $475,000
Box Office: $3,919,254
Profit %: 725%
* launched Rian Johnson career (ie. Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017))
Budget: $350,000
Box Office: $2,400,000 * US Box Office only
Profit %: 586%
* launched Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell careers and Evil Dead franchise
Budget: $1,2000,000
Box Office: $2,832,029* US box office only
Profit %: 136%
* Quentin Tarantino directorial debut, career US box office $0.65b
Budget: $1,400,000
Box Office: $140,252,463+ (showing ever weekend @ midnight)
Profit %: 9732%
Budget: $1,200,000 (¥121,737,258)
Box Office: 10,000,000+ (¥1 billion+) Japan box office
Profit %: 733%
* launched Ring film franchise
Budget: $800,000
Box Office: $32,500,000
Profit %: 3963%
* part a series wildly successful low budget Billy Jack films
Budget: $500,000
Box Office: $33,473,297
Profit %: 6595%
Budget: $500,000
Box Office: $23,000,000
Profit %: 4500%
* launched Walking Tall film franchise
Budget: $1,500,000
Box Office: $95,000,000
Profit %: 6533%
*added 10 June 2021
Budget: $1,108,000
Box Office: $27,700,000
Profit %: 2,340%
*added 10 June 2021
Budget: $1,500,000
Box Office: $49,800,000
Profit %: 3,200%
*added 25 January 2022
Budget: $1,500,000
Box Office: $65,336,603
Profit %: 4,256%
Breakthrough film for Barry Jenkins, Marhershala Ali and others, winning both of them Oscars and the Best Picture Oscar
* added 10 February 2023