Most profitable movie production companies how to#
Most profitable movie production companies movie#

Most profitable movie production companies movie#

This first successful “found footage” low budget horror movie was absolutely groundbreaking.

Without The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity could never have been made. This is horror filmmaking at its purest, with the gigantic financial returns representing the power of story and atmosphere over stars and CGI glitz. Can’t afford lighting or decent cameras? Make the story about people filming a home video, and your aesthetic becomes integral to the plot (and also scarier!) It turns all of its cost-saving corner cuts into virtues, and generates sheer terror out of Ouija boards and slamming doors. This is the gold standard for low budget horror movies. The film was screened at Screamfest, discovered by a CAA assistant, picked up by Paramount – and made almost $200 million, spawning a vast franchise, all against a microscopic budget of $15,000. The practical effects are far, far scarier than most expensive splatter you’ll find in big budget numbers. Like The Blair Witch Project before it (see below), the movie uses the “found footage” conceit to make the low budget look a part of the story: the characters are shooting a home video to try and capture paranormal activity on film.ĭirector Oren Peli shot the whole film on video with just a few actors – who mostly improvised their lines – and no crew, since the camera is on a tripod most of the time. It’s one of the highest grossing low budget movies of all time – some say the most profitable film ever made. What lesson can you apply to your low budget movie?įor the films we are including, we’re listing the original budget, not adjusted for inflation – but all of these films would cost less than $5 million to make today. That’s why every film comes with a Takeaway. Still, while we acknowledge the importance of those films within the cannon, we also want to provide our audience with actionable learnings from these movies. Such films include Donnie Darko, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Boyhood, and Get Out – great low budget movies that made millions, but not quite low enough for our purposes. We’ve had to neglect extraordinary foreign classics like Pather Panchali and The Lives of Others – which are not only some of the best low budget films of all time, but the best films of all time period.Įven relatively recent movies made for less than $5 million are edged out if inflation has already pushed their present-day cost past our mark. This means we’ve excluded, for example, hugely influential foreign action films like The Way of the Dragon and the original Mad Max. Older distribution models and foreign funding sources don’t help much when you’re trying to make a low budget American film in 2022.Įven though indie financing structures based on video and DVD sales have gone the way of the dodo, many of the films we’ll reference could still be made today using the somewhat analogous streaming model. The reason we applied these constraints to our list is to make it as relevant as possible to indie producers right now.

That made over $1 million at the box office, together with other forms of distribution.

That was financed largely or entirely in the US, UK, or Canada.

That has a budget of less than $5 million adjusted for inflation.

Since many of the best low budget films belong to the horror genre – and in honor of October 31st – we’ve gathered 31 of these classics, just in time for Halloween! What is considered a low budget movie?įor our purposes, what is considered a low budget movie is: In this post, we’re going to list some low budget movies that made millions and discuss some of the takeaways we can learn from and use for our own projects. But what are the ingredients to major success with the best low budget movies? Are there common features between low budget movie that made millions and found a wide audience?

Most profitable movie production companies how to#

As a producer of low budget indie films, you know how to save money making a great movie.