Budget: $6.6M
“28 Days Later” has made it on to pretty much every list of the best zombie movies of all time. It’s got a little bit of everything, along with some great acting (and action). It was filmed in 2002 and made in London with a budget of $6.6 million. Cillian Murphy stars as Jim and delivers a powerful performance alongside talented co-stars such as Naomie Harris and Megan Burns.
The film, which was written by Alex Garland, infuses classic zombie virus outbreak dread with a more modern spin on how the fight for survival plays out. Garland credits George Romero’s “Night of The Living Dead” as one of the main sources of inspiration for his own film, which brought in over $80 million in profit.
The Purge
Budget: $3M
Considering the fact that "The Purge" has turned into a multi-million-dollar franchise, it may be hard to believe that the original movie was put together with a budget of just $3 million. Now, there are multiple multi-million-dollar films along with a limited series on TV. Each of the films (and the TV episodes) have their own theme, but they all follow the same storyline about “The Purge.”
The story is about one night per year during which the federal government sanctions all crime — including murder. In most of the films, the government themselves are on the “no-kill” list, with the exception of a few certain instances throughout the franchise. The budget for the more recent films has been a bit higher, thanks to the success of their predecessor.
Friday the 13th
Budget: $600,000
The original "Friday the 13th" is definitely a classic horror movie and arguably one of the best slasher films ever made — and they did it all with a budget of less than $600,000. The gory slaughter-fest hit nearly $60 million at the box office and turned into an extremely successful franchise. Now, there are loads of Friday the 13th movies, including "Freddy vs. Jason," which combines this franchise with "Nightmare on Elm Street"’s Freddy Kruger.
The movie was written and directed by Victor Miller and was his highest-grossing movie of all time. Miller is still writing screenplays today and has a horror film called "Eden Falls." Although he didn’t write the scripts for any of the movies that came after the first, he’s still responsible for creating a cult classic.
Napoleon Dynamite
Budget: $400,000
"Napoleon Dynamite" is about an incredibly awkward teenage boy who lives with his grandma in Idaho. Jason Heder, who plays the title role, was only originally paid $1,000 to star in the comedy, which ended up grossing nearly $45 million in theatres. Heder, of course, renegotiated his contract and was able to get a percentage of proceeds after the film skyrocketed.
The movie was entirely filmed in Idaho and released at Sundance in 2004. It was received so well by audiences that it almost made the top 10 on Bravo’s list of the top 100 funniest movies of all time. Jared Hess, who both co-wrote and directed the film, probably didn’t imagine the enormous amount of success this strange little movie would see.
Star Wars
Budget: $11M
$11 million may seem like an insanely high amount of money, and it is on the high end of this list, but when you compare it to the $775 million profit "Star Wars" made — you can see why it made our list! George Lucas had his own production company at the time he put his masterpiece together, and after this film came out, his company (Lucasfilm) launched straight to success. Before "E.T." hit theaters, "Star Wars" was the single highest-grossing movie in history.
The cult classic turned into an uber-successful franchise with many episodes. The original film won an impressive 6 Academy Awards, including the awards for Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, and Best Music/Original Score. George Lucas was also responsible for bringing the world the amazing Indiana Jones franchise — thank you, George! He ended up selling Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company in 2012.