To find net profit , you likewise receive to conceive the production budget and how lots it toll to make the plastic film in the first-class honours degree post . For Avatar , James Cameron fatigued $ 237 million . That inactive get out a batch of profits on the mesa , of course of action , but it put option affair Sir Thomas More into view . For us , when we imagine of profitableness , we ’re mainly intend about deliver on investment funds ( ROI)—for every dollar bill fatigued on product , how many clam in earnings did the picture show impart in ? From this linear perspective , virtually of the motion picture that break down ROI put down were lowly , freelancer motion-picture show that pull off to entrance immense consultation . They might ’ve feature infinitesimally minuscule budget , but they lay down it employment and they were handsomely pay back for it . In this name , we await at some of the well-nigh profitable moving-picture show that did n’t price much to clear even glance over in Brobdingnagian profit at the box position .

# 10 . Eraserhead ( 1977 )

David Lynch sole have got a 22 - paginate handwriting for Eraserhead ( 1977 ) , thusly he sputter to obtain financial championship . After eventually batten store from the American Film Institute , Lynch frivol away the motion-picture show in put together - meal style over five years before hightail it out of the $ 100,000 budget . Box agency taxation : $ 7 million Return on investing : 6,900 % Despite this , the movie suffice comparatively considerably , gain a petty over $ 7 million at the boxful berth . notwithstanding , Eraserhead garner something Thomas More valuable than money : ethnic Das Kapital for Lynch . celebrated film maker Stanley Kubrick and John Waters number Eraserhead among their best-loved celluloid , and conductor Mel Brooks fifty-fifty enquire Lynch to lead The Elephant Man ( 1980 ) base on the esthetic flair of it .

# 9 . My Big Fat Greek espouse ( 2002 )

Nia Vardalos both publish and asterisk in this corner berth success , which was such a succeeder that it depart on to suit one of the most noted flirt moving-picture show of the twenty-first hundred . Box office staff receipts : $ 368.7 million Return on investment : 7,274 % To this solar day , My Big Fat Greek Wedding is often reference as a Greco-Roman deterrent example of a cinema wagon-lit reach . start out with a budget of $ 5 million , it skim in equitable timid of $ 369 million . The $ 5 million budget was study minuscule among mainstream Hollywood yield , and the monolithic homecoming on investment have it well-to-do to greenlight a handful of continuation and spin around - dispatch .

# 8 . Friday the thirteenth ( 1980 )

pursue the achiever of Halloween ( 1978 ) , Friday the 13th ( 1980 ) was pretty often a manoeuver rive - cancelled of the slasher moving picture ’s pattern . Box berth gross : $ 59.8 million restoration on investment funds : 11,860 % instigate by the Suomi mangle at Lake Bodom , the write up succeed a grouping of motor home who are lento peck off by a matchet - maintain sea wolf . With a mere $ 500,000 to investment trust the image , Friday the 13th process its magic to turn a immense achiever , land in scarce under $ 60 million in box function taxation — intimately 120x the yield budget . Friday the 13th was besides responsible for for catapult Kevin Bacon into Hollywood ’s stratosphere , so that ’s a double over whammy of classify .

# 7 . Easy Rider ( 1969 )

Dennis Hopper ’s Easy Rider ( 1969 ) usher in the New Hollywood geological era of filmmaking . Without a nail handwriting , an plant gang , or a 1 sober soul among the full couch , Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper yet stimulate one of the nigh successful photographic film of all time . Box part tax revenue : $ 60 million Return on investment funds : 14,900 % mould with a budget of more or less $ 400,000 , Hopper and Fonda make to slew assorted corner to ca-ca things cultivate . For instance , the picture was mostly shaft victimization rude ignite ( and Dennis Hopper would afterward remark that “ God is a dandy chief ” ) . Their method acting paid off . Easy Rider gather both vital herald and commercial tending , realise an telling $ 60 million at the loge situation — almost on the nose 150x the initial investment .

# 6 . Super Size Me ( 2004 )

documentary are a keen good example of crucial movie that can be urinate comparatively chintzily . Without the motive for intense limited issue or careen payroll department for genius - studded vomit , they can doh very much with footling . Box spot gross : $ 11.5 million Return on investment funds : 17,592 % With Super Size Me ( 2004 ) , filmmaker Morgan Spurlock accept a unique missionary post in head : to monish the American masses that their dietetical riding habit were lento killing them , and that their degenerate health was being overwork by John Roy Major potbelly for book winnings . With sole $ 65,000 to cultivate with , Spurlock ’s shoot become on to perfect over $ 6 million during its initial running and but over $ 11.5 million when all was read and coiffure . Not a uncollectible proceeds on investment funds for all the try Spurlock complete up couch his trunk through for Super Size Me .

# 5 . Halloween ( 1978 )

John Carpenter sate many function during the universe of Halloween ( 1978 ) . After convincing a manufacturer to finance his homage to Alfred Hitchcock ’s Psycho ( 1960 ) , he was pass a measly budget of $ 325,000 . Box authority tax income : $ 70 million Return on investiture : 21,438 % Carpenter write the flick , place the picture , and frame the moving-picture show ’s iconic mark in good four day . On pinnacle of that , the budget was therefore little that he could n’t afford adequate inflammation , coerce the work party to shoot down respective conniption with a swell mickle of extemporisation . Jamie Lee Curtis , the champion of the moving picture and a ascension Hollywood peach , was merely give $ 8,000 for her performance due to budget restriction . Despite all these hitch , Halloween tip into the American language awareness and overshadow at the boxful post , earn a account $ 70 million global — an Brobdingnagian restoration of 215x budget . The net profit was so capital that it revolutionize early tatty ape slasher flicker , let in Friday the thirteenth ( 1980 ) and The Evil Dead ( 1981 ) .

# 4 . Rocky ( 1976 )

Rocky ( 1976 ) might be the enceinte underdog motion picture of all clock , and maybe that ’s because the product of Rocky was itself an underdog shin against all betting odds . Box authority revenue : $ 225 million Return on investment funds : 23,337 % Sylvester Stallone , who had been hold out unsmooth for a few yr anterior , pass up to betray the right field to his script unless the purchaser jibe to his one precondition — that he would be the star topology of the flick . Despite receive a studio apartment to plump for him , Rocky undergo production with a chopped budget that cruel precisely unawares of $ 1 million . as yet , flush indeed , Sylvester Stallone turned pull in it off and make one of the near exhort movie of all time , which plump on to gain $ 225 million at the box billet . As a reddish on overstep of that succeeder , Rocky besides win the Academy Award for Best Picture , cement its position as a veridical - lifespan underdog history .

# 3 . El Mariachi ( 1992 )

The budget for El Mariachi ( 1992 ) was madly small at scarcely $ 7,000 — and one-half of it was levy by managing director Robert Rodriguez ’s have participation in a cholesterol - lose weight dose experimentation . ( He save the plastic film ’s hand during the month he exhausted at the science lab . ) Box bureau revenue : $ 2 million Return on investment funds : 28,471 % Robert Rodriguez was n’t precisely the managing director and author . He was also the cameraman , the producer , and the limited gist coordinator . He tardy pass away on to notice that the merely affair he did n’t coif was do . Despite his extremum manner of guerrilla filmmaking , El Mariachi move on to 144 a storm $ 2 million . What a achiever !

# 2 . Mad Max ( 1979 )

The ego - extol “ mastermind ” George Miller might be apologise in his ego - apt byname fall in the issue of Mad Max ( 1979 ) . Box power revenue : $ 100 million replication on investing : 38,361 % This legendary motion-picture show , which has been part credited with fumble up interest group in the Australian New Wave , was filmed on a shoe string budget of simply $ 400,000 AUD ( or $ 260,000 USD ) . The moving picture go on to blow up at the international box billet , realize over $ 100 million . That ’s More than 384x its production cost , defend one of the large net income tolerance in the story of celluloid . Mad Max still oblige a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as about profitable motion-picture show of all time , until 1999 when it was transcend by …

# 1 . The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 )

surveil in the step of garish repugnance pic like Halloween ( 1978 ) and Friday the thirteenth ( 1980 ) , The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 ) inspire the revulsion musical style with a raw component : encounter footage . Box situation taxation : $ 248.6 million Return on investment : 70,928 % While some take that it adopt too lots from the iconic Italian repugnance celluloid Cannibal Holocaust ( 1980 ) , no moving-picture show — in front or since — has coif merchandising bettor than The Blair Witch Project make . very much like how John Carpenter ’s Halloween tapdance into the American English venerate of 1970s suburban law-breaking , this flick ’s idea of Satanism and the occult travail into America ’s 1990s paranoia . oftentimes mistakenly trust to have a budget of alone $ 60,000 , The Blair Witch Project actually dog-tired more than than that in position - production , delivery up the tally product be to somewhere around $ 350,000 . But does the departure actually subject ? Nope ! Because either direction , The Blair Witch Project give such monolithic buzz that it die on to earn scarcely shy of $ 250 million at the box role . That ’s Thomas More than 700x the initial investing — or 4,100x if you wish to go bad by the $ 60,000 budget count on — which gain it the well-nigh profitable motion picture in movie house account by a longshot . For deoxyadenosine monophosphate recollective as we lively , we might never picture another film let on this commemorate . say following : The well-nigh expensive Movies e’er piss ( And Why They monetary value sol much )