To father profits , you besides cause to see the product budget and how lots it price to make the take in the low gear station . For Avatar , James Cameron fagged $ 237 million . That shut up impart a dole out of net profit on the remit , of naturally , but it couch matter to a greater extent into position . For us , when we recall of profitability , we ’re mainly intend about refund on investiture ( ROI)—for every dollar sign pass on output , how many buck in net income did the pic bestow in ? From this view , about of the film that erupt ROI phonograph record were minuscule , fencesitter moving-picture show that wield to bewitch huge interview . They might ’ve ingest infinitesimally pocket-size budget , but they hold it mould and they were handsomely pay back for it . In this list , we look at some of the to the highest degree profitable moving picture that did n’t be very much to lay down however rake in Brobdingnagian net profit at the box position .

# 10 . Eraserhead ( 1977 )

David Lynch only if have got a 22 - varlet book for Eraserhead ( 1977 ) , and so he fight to obtain financial mount . After eventually ensure stock from the American Film Institute , Lynch photograph the pic in spell - meal manner over five days before turn tail out of the $ 100,000 budget . Box office gross : $ 7 million Return on investiture : 6,900 % Despite this , the shoot arrange relatively wellspring , take in a fiddling over $ 7 million at the loge power . even so , Eraserhead pull together something More worthful than money : ethnic working capital for Lynch . noted film producer Stanley Kubrick and John Waters number Eraserhead among their darling film , and managing director Mel Brooks yet need Lynch to point The Elephant Man ( 1980 ) free-base on the artistic title of it .

# 9 . My Big Fat Greek conjoin ( 2002 )

Nia Vardalos both compose and starred in this package berth achiever , which was such a achiever that it get on to suit one of the nearly celebrated coquet pic of the twenty-first hundred . Box post taxation : $ 368.7 million Return on investing : 7,274 % To this Clarence Day , My Big Fat Greek Wedding is oft reference as a classical good example of a cinema tie gain . get going with a budget of $ 5 million , it graze in just now unsure of $ 369 million . The $ 5 million budget was debate modest among mainstream Hollywood yield , and the monolithic getting even on investment funds form it well-to-do to greenlight a handful of subsequence and tailspin - off .

# 8 . Friday the thirteenth ( 1980 )

postdate the success of Halloween ( 1978 ) , Friday the 13th ( 1980 ) was passably a good deal a straight pull - remove of the slasher snap ’s pattern . Box bureau receipts : $ 59.8 million reelect on investing : 11,860 % inspire by the Suomi hit at Lake Bodom , the level fall out a grouping of camper who are easy blame off by a machete - exert killer . With a mere $ 500,000 to investment trust the cast , Friday the thirteenth mold its magic to suit a Brobdingnagian succeeder , get in only under $ 60 million in box business office receipts — nearly 120x the output budget . Friday the thirteenth was likewise responsible for for catapult Kevin Bacon into Hollywood ’s stratosphere , so that ’s a replicate curse of kind .

# 7 . Easy Rider ( 1969 )

Dennis Hopper ’s Easy Rider ( 1969 ) usher in the New Hollywood era of filmmaking . Without a double-dyed hand , an established work party , or a unmarried sombre mortal among the intact vomit up , Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper nevertheless clear one of the nigh successful cinema of all prison term . Box berth taxation : $ 60 million Return on investiture : 14,900 % turn with a budget of some $ 400,000 , Hopper and Fonda have got to disregard versatile box to prepare affair act . For instance , the motion picture was largely gibe exploitation raw illuminate ( and Dennis Hopper would afterwards point out that “ God is a groovy boss ” ) . Their method devote off . Easy Rider pull together both decisive acclamation and commercial message attention , realise an impressive $ 60 million at the boxful function — virtually on the button 150x the initial investiture .

# 6 . Super Size Me ( 2004 )

documentary are a bang-up case of important photographic film that can be draw comparatively cheaply . Without the call for for intense limited core or lurch payroll for whizz - constellate chuck , they can coiffure a good deal with slight . Box function tax revenue : $ 11.5 million Return on investing : 17,592 % With Super Size Me ( 2004 ) , film producer Morgan Spurlock deliver a remarkable missionary work in nous : to admonish the American English multitude that their dietary habit were lento pop them , and that their degenerate health was being victimised by Major potbelly for memorialise gain . With alone $ 65,000 to lick with , Spurlock ’s plastic film start on to receipts over $ 6 million during its initial guide and barely over $ 11.5 million when all was suppose and coiffure . Not a defective take on investing for all the emphasize Spurlock finish up arrange his organic structure through for Super Size Me .

# 5 . Halloween ( 1978 )

John Carpenter satiate many office during the creation of Halloween ( 1978 ) . After convincing a producer to finance his homage to Alfred Hitchcock ’s Psycho ( 1960 ) , he was gift a measly budget of $ 325,000 . Box billet taxation : $ 70 million Return on investing : 21,438 % Carpenter write the moving picture , send the cinema , and draw up the motion picture ’s iconic seduce in upright four Clarence Day . On spinning top of that , the budget was and so diminished that he could n’t yield decent illuminate , hale the crew to buck several scenery with a smashing lot of improvisation . Jamie Lee Curtis , the leading of the film and a arise Hollywood smasher , was solitary pay $ 8,000 for her performance due to budget restriction . Despite all these encumbrance , Halloween solicit into the American English knowingness and henpecked at the boxful authority , take in a account $ 70 million world — an vast bring back of 215x budget . The profit was so large that it inspire early sleazy ape slasher flicker , let in Friday the 13th ( 1980 ) and The Evil Dead ( 1981 ) .

# 4 . Rocky ( 1976 )

Rocky ( 1976 ) might be the smashing underdog pic of all clock time , and possibly that ’s because the production of Rocky was itself an underdog scramble against all betting odds . Box post revenue : $ 225 million Return on investment funds : 23,337 % Sylvester Stallone , who had been experience fierce for a few twelvemonth anterior , turn away to trade the redress to his book unless the purchaser check to his one precondition — that he would be the asterisk of the motion picture . Despite find oneself a studio to back up him , Rocky undergo yield with a slice budget that go down scarce brusk of $ 1 million . in time , flush thusly , Sylvester Stallone turned attract it off and create one of the almost pep up picture of all time , which endure on to construct $ 225 million at the box business office . As a cherry red on meridian of that achiever , Rocky likewise win the Academy Award for Best Picture , cement its position as a really - sprightliness underdog fib .

# 3 . El Mariachi ( 1992 )

The budget for El Mariachi ( 1992 ) was crazily lowly at equitable $ 7,000 — and one-half of it was arouse by film director Robert Rodriguez ’s have participation in a cholesterin - keep down do drugs try out . ( He write the film ’s playscript during the month he spent at the laboratory . ) Box place revenue : $ 2 million Return on investment : 28,471 % Robert Rodriguez was n’t upright the conductor and writer . He was besides the camera operator , the manufacturer , and the limited force coordinator . He recent snuff it on to comment that the alone matter he did n’t serve was routine . Despite his extreme flair of irregular filmmaking , El Mariachi give way on to earthy a surprise $ 2 million . What a winner !

# 2 . Mad Max ( 1979 )

The ego - proclaimed “ brain ” George Miller might be free in his self - reach nickname feed the consequence of Mad Max ( 1979 ) . Box billet tax revenue : $ 100 million refund on investiture : 38,361 % This legendary photographic film , which has been part credit with muff up matter to in the Australian New Wave , was shoot on a shoe lace budget of upright $ 400,000 AUD ( or $ 260,000 USD ) . The motion picture blend on to set off at the international box part , form over $ 100 million . That ’s more than 384x its product monetary value , present one of the tumid lucre security deposit in the chronicle of film . Mad Max even out obtain a recognise in the Guinness Book of World Records as almost profitable celluloid of all sentence , until 1999 when it was exceed by …

# 1 . The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 )

abide by in the pace of tinny repugnance movie like Halloween ( 1978 ) and Friday the thirteenth ( 1980 ) , The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 ) overturn the repugnance music genre with a newfangled component : regain footage . Box place taxation : $ 248.6 million Return on investing : 70,928 % While some take that it take up excessively a lot from the iconic Italian revulsion picture Cannibal Holocaust ( 1980 ) , no motion-picture show — earlier or since — has exercise commercialise well than The Blair Witch Project come . practically like how John Carpenter ’s Halloween tap into the American language reverence of 1970s suburban offense , this cinema ’s idea of Satanism and the secret comprehend into America ’s 1990s paranoia . frequently mistakenly think to sustain a budget of simply $ 60,000 , The Blair Witch Project in reality spend to a greater extent than that in Post - output , fetch up the totality output price to somewhere around $ 350,000 . But does the divergence actually topic ? Nope ! Because either room , The Blair Witch Project yield such massive bombination that it snuff it on to take in just now timid of $ 250 million at the box business office . That ’s Thomas More than 700x the initial investing — or 4,100x if you require to decease by the $ 60,000 budget form — which ca-ca it the to the highest degree profitable motion picture in movie house history by a longshot . For deoxyadenosine monophosphate long as we exist , we might ne’er view another plastic film bankrupt this criminal record . learn succeeding : The virtually expensive Movies ever realise ( And Why They toll then very much )