Budget: $5M
Christopher Nolan’s most acclaimed film is “Memento.” It’s about a guy named Leonard Shelby who wants nothing more than to avenge the horrific murder of his wife. The only problem is he suffers short-term memory loss so severely he can barely remember to do it.
The truth is she murdered herself by having him give her a fatal dose of medicine. The psychological thriller made $40 million, eight times its original budget.
Moon
Budget: $5M
"Moon" is a compelling sci-fi film that brings the surface of the moon to life without much CGI to speak of and with a very modest budget. It tells the story of astronaut Sam Bell played by Sam Rockwell.
He was dispatched to the moon on a three-year contract to mine helium 3. Themes of solitude are brought out with his Siri-voiced companion, GERTY. Kevin Spacey voices Sam’s robot companion. Duncan Jones’ directorial debut "Moon" brought in $10 million and won the 2010 Hugo Award.
Following
Budget: $6K
Christopher Nolan’s debut film Following was made with virtually no budget. He scraped up funds himself from his day-job wages. It was filmed in black and white, not for purely aesthetic purposes, but also to keep costs down.
The film did very well at film festivals landing a Grand Jury Prize nomination at Sundance, amongst others. It is about a struggling writer who follows strangers around in desperate hope of landing inspiration. Following sold $49,000 in tickets. It’s not much, but with a near-zero budget, this movie is one of the most well-known films made with no financing.
Monsters
Budget: $500K
Slimy, tentacled, extraterrestrial CGI monsters inhabit this film. The beasts got to Earth after a NASA research probe crashed. The failed mission sent its sample of alien life free to roam the planet.
The British sci-fi thriller flips the usual plot of aliens abducting humans around. Humans abduct aliens in "Monsters." It earned over $4 million but, consider; it was made with barely a half-million dollars. It did plenty well to go to sequel. Monsters also earned director Gareth Edwards enough acclaim to win major Hollywood blockbusters "Godzilla" and "Rogue One."
Buffalo '66
Budget: $1.8M
Starring Christina Ricci, Rosanna Arquette, Vincent Gallo, and Jan-Michael Vincent and directed by Gallo, this low-budget flick isn’t afraid to emulate a B-movie. It’s a crime drama and a comedy with a rocking soundtrack that includes Yes and King Crimson. It was made for a drop in the bucket, and it about doubled its investment.
Gallo plays Billy Brown, who served his time and comes back home. He finds a girl at a club (Ricci) and takes her home to his family, so they will think he is responsibly married. Things get dicey when he falls in love with her.