Budget: $6M
Grease is the word. We all know that because “Grease” is one of the most popular musical films ever made. Sent to theaters on a $6 million budget, the “High School Musical” of the 70s made nearly $400 million, effectively launching the career of Olivia Newton-John and hitting John Travolta at the height of his career.
It started as a Broadway musical in NYC. Allan Carr secured the movie rights immediately, and Paramount was happy to make it. The 50s era music/dance movie was just the nostalgia Americans were pining for.
Another Earth
Budget: $150K
In this movie, another world is possible. Earth has a clone. It floats above Earth similarly to another moon. Even stranger, the other Earth has you on it. It’s a replica of all life.
Rhonda (Brit Marling), a young astrophysicist who was just accepted into MIT, hypothesizes that life on the other planet is behind ours, meaning she may be able to relive and repair a disastrous moment in her life. The budget movie won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It brought in almost $2 million.
An Inconvenient Truth
Budget: $1M
As a documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth" did extremely well. It’s one of the top-grossing documentaries of all time. Chock full of futuristic disaster scenarios as the result of unabated global warming, it will have you on the edge of the seat as much as any sci-fi post-apocalyptic thriller.
Monster storms will kill us; low-lying coastal areas will be underwater, no matter how big the population was. The worst refugee crisis known to man could happen. It’s scarier because it is the truth. That is the premise of the movie. Former vice president Al Gore explains why.
Young Frankenstein
Budget: $2.8M
"Young Frankenstein" is a cult classic and a masterpiece of modern film. It’s burlesque enough to draw any audience, but it slips in subtle high-brow notions.
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s novel about the monster, "Young Frankenstein" was written by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder plays the role of the mad scientist, a relative of Shelley’s Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Peter Boyle plays the monster. "Young Frankenstein" cost less than $3 million to make and was a box office hit grossing $86 million. The film is registered for preservation at the Library of Congress.
Reservoir Dogs
Budget: $1.2M
Quentin Tarantino debuted his talent with "Reservoir Dogs." He wrote, directed, and starred in the 90s-era crime heist movie. It was a cult classic grossing $2.8 million. The film proved the director worthy of his film noir credentials and anticipated his next crime noir, "Pulp Fiction."
Filmed primarily in a warehouse, it did not portray the actual heist. Such efforts helped to keep production costs down. Tarantino tropes like violence, nonlinear storytelling, and profanity made their mark first in this movie.