10 Films for the Credit Crunch

It looks like pretty much the whole world is going to fall into a recession soon, and as every time you open a paper you can’t avoid seeing something on the credit crunch, it got me thinking about some hugely successful movies which were made on a shoestring budget.  So here’s a list of 10 cracking films all made on what would be considered a low budget. 

 

No. 10 -The Evil Dead (1981)

Estimated Budget: $350,000.  

Gross:  $2,400,000+

The Evil Dead was made on a budget estimated to be around $350,000 and was shot over a period of about 1 and a half years.  The shoot was so long the director, Sam Raimi, had to use ‘Fake Shemps’ or ’stand-ins’ to replace the actors who left. One of the only actors loyal to the project from the beginning was Bruce Campbell, who went through torturous circumstances as the character ‘Ash.’ According to the Evil Dead DVD commentary, he would often return home after a night of shooting in the back of a pick-up truck, as he was usually covered in fake blood made from a mixture of corn syrup, food coloring, and non-dairy coffee creamer.  OK, so this one wasn’t technically a huge success as it only performed moderately well at the box office after it eventually picked up a distribution deal, but it was the film that launched the careers of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and thanks to its cult status, it managed to grab the attention of a Production Company who gave Sam the budget to make the hugely popular Evil Dead 2 (which is often incorrectly considered to be a bigger budget remake of the original).   

I love this film, I think its one of the first horror/comedies I ever saw.  Check out one of the coolest scenes in cinema history:

  

  

No. 9 -Swingers (1996)

Estimated Budget: $200,000  

Gross:  $6,5000,000

John Favreau wrote Swingers in just two weeks and starred in it alongside Vince Vaughn.  The movie really launched their careers and also that of Director Doug Liman.  It’s also responsible for coining the phrase “Vegas Baby!”.  To make Swingers they applied some guerilla tactics, some of the movie’s casino scenes were filmed without a permit. At one point, they were asked to leave the casino by a police officer, but he let them finish filming the scene before they left. If you look at the left side of the screen during the scene where Mike is betting on the $100 table, a police officer can be seen in the distance watching the filming taking place.  

 

 

No. 8 -Pi (1998)

Estimated Budget: $60,000  

Gross:  $3,200,000+ 

Pi (or π ) was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky. As soon as the film hit the festival circuit, it went on to win Darren the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998, the Gotham Open Palm Award and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.  Its a black and white psychological thriller with numbers.  To get the $60,000 together, Darren managed to get a lot of individual contributions of $100 from friends and family.  When the movie was bought by the distributors for $1M, each investor got back $150 on their investment.

 

No. 7 -Clerks (1994)

Estimated Budget: $27,000  

Gross:  $3,100,000

Clerks was made by Kevin Smith who worked at the local Quickstop during the day, filmed Clerks there during the night and apparently paid for the whole thing on Credit Cards and by selling the bulk of his comic collection.  Luckily for him it won a load of awards at various film festivals (including the Mercedes-Benz Award at Cannes), got picked up by Miramax and made about $3.1M in the US box office.  It successfully launched Smith’s career and introduced the world to the Askewniverse, a place where a foul mouthed drug dealer and his partially mute friend are Prophets, lesbians easily fall in love with Ben Affleck and Mark Hamil is a Cock-Knocker.  

Here’s a funny clip from Clerks on Jedi Politics

 

No. 6. -Halloween (1978)

Estimated Budget: $320,000  

Gross: $47,000,000

Halloween was made for a relatively small budget and was filmed in just 21 days.  Originally it was going to be called The Baby Sitter Murders by writer/director John Carpenter but luckily the producer suggested Halloween and it stuck.  The mask that the murderous Michael Myers wears is a perfect example of low budget film making, it was simply just a William Shatner mask bought for $1.98 and painted slightly blueish.  

 

 

No. 5. -El Mariachi (1992)

Estimated (initial) Budget: $7,000  

Gross: $2,040,920

El Mariachi was initially made on a tiny budget.  Robert Rodriguez was so desperate to  get his movie made he donated blood and carried out medical experiments for money.  Sounds extreme but he got the job done.  After he’d completed the film, a major studio saw it, bought it, fixed it up with a load of money in post production (reportedly $200K) and then gave it a theatrical release.  I’m sure this is a story that keeps fledgling film makers going, and the films not too bad either.

 

No. 4. -Mad Max (1979)

Estimated Budget: $300,000  

Gross: $100,000,000

On a production cost to sales ratio, Mad Max is one of, if not the most successful Australian films ever made.  Not only was it hugely successful but it also was the film that made Mel Gibson a movie star.  It went on to spawn 2 sequels and somehow made Tina Turner think she could act.  This might be a little controversial but I reckon Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior was the best out of the three. 
 


 

 

 

 

No. 3.-Night of the Living Dead (1968) 

Estimated Budget: $114,000  

Gross: $42,000,000

Night of the Living Dead was produced and directed by George Romero on a relatively low budget of $114,000 and is often thought to be the daddy of all Zombie films.  It certainly wasn’t the first in this genre but it was the first Zombie movie which set the tone and some ground rules for the contemporary Zombie.  Its almost a crime to enjoy modern Zombie movies and not to have seen this, if you haven’t I bet you’re one of those people that think running Zombies are cool.

 

No. 2.  -Deep Throat (1972)

Estimated Budget: $22,500  

Gross: $600,000+

Deep Throat was possibly an even more successful low-budget film but we’ve had to put it in as number 2 as its figures are often disputed as unrealistic.  Apparently it was filmed in just 6 days in Florida and if those figures are correct it beats Blair Witch hands down.  It makes you wonder doesn’t it, how far does a girl have to go to untangle her tingle?

Here’s a clip, but don’t worry, its safe for work.

 

No. 1.  -The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Estimated Budget: $22,000  

Gross: $240,000,000+  

TBWP is the most successful low budget film of all time, it had the highest ratio of box office sales to production cost in American film making history.  I remember it kind of freaked me out when I saw it in the cinema but then I watched it on DVD and it didn’t really translate to the small screen well.  They gave the Directors a load more money to go and make a sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 but the movie stank and completely lost the original appeal of the first one.  

 

 

 

So should Hollywood find itself in a recession, hopefully there’ll still be filmmakers like the ones above, taking risks and making great films for peanuts.  Although I’m sure for every success story, there’s a thousand films that didn’t make it.