IMDb Polls

Poll: Low Budget Movies That Paid Off Big

Low budgets films allow investors to reap potentially huge returns on their investment. While budget caps vary throughout the world and time, one authoritative definition sets the top end of the limit for movies with a current budget under $2,500,000 USD. On both sides of the camera, many of today's biggest stars first honed their skills on low budget films. These films launched or served as a breakthrough for many of their careers.

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

Discuss the topic here.

Results of 14,795 votes:

  1. 1.

    Rocky (1976)

     
    Screenwriter: Sylvester Stallone Budget: $995,000 Box Office: $225,000,000 Profit %: 22,513% * launched Sylvester Stallone career and Rocky franchise
  2. 2.

    Mad Max (1979)

     
    Director: George Miller Budget: $300,000 Box Office: $99,750,000 Profit %: 33,150% * launched George Miller and Mel Gibson careers and Mad Max franchise
  3. 3.

    The Breakfast Club (1985)

     
    Director: John Hughes 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

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