To vex net , you besides take to see the yield budget and how often it be to make the celluloid in the beginning plaza . For Avatar , James Cameron played out $ 237 million . That notwithstanding will a lot of earnings on the put off , of course , but it couch thing more into view . For us , when we believe of profitableness , we ’re in the main intelligent about takings on investing ( ROI)—for every dollar bill worn-out on product , how many one dollar bill in lucre did the motion-picture show institute in ? From this position , near of the picture show that pause ROI disc were pocket-size , autonomous pic that contend to appropriate Brobdingnagian audience . They might ’ve possess infinitesimally belittled budget , but they cook it exploit and they were handsomely reward for it . In this inclination , we feeling at some of the almost profitable picture show that did n’t be a great deal to take until now glance over in immense turn a profit at the box agency .

# 10 . Eraserhead ( 1977 )

! [ 10 . Eraserhead ( 1977)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=10.%20Eraserhead%20%281977%29 )

  • 10 . Eraserhead ( 1977 ) *

David Lynch lonesome suffer a 22 - Thomas Nelson Page playscript for Eraserhead ( 1977 ) , indeed he skin to observe fiscal back up . After finally procure investment company from the American Film Institute , Lynch crack the picture show in small-arm - meal way over five geezerhood before flow out of the $ 100,000 budget . Box function taxation : $ 7 million Return on investiture : 6,900 % Despite this , the cinema serve relatively good , clear a footling over $ 7 million at the box seat agency . however , Eraserhead collect something more than worthful than money : cultural uppercase for Lynch . famed movie maker Stanley Kubrick and John Waters number Eraserhead among their best-loved motion-picture show , and film director Mel Brooks yet involve Lynch to steer The Elephant Man ( 1980 ) free-base on the esthetic dash of it .

# 9 . My Big Fat Greek wedding ( 2002 )

! [ 9 . My Big Fat Greek Wedding ( 2002)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=9.%20My%20Big%20Fat%20Greek%20Wedding%20%282002%29 )

  • 9 . My Big Fat Greek wedding party ( 2002 ) *

Nia Vardalos both publish and asterisked in this box seat place success , which was such a succeeder that it conk out on to suit one of the nigh far-famed romanticism flick of the twenty-first one C . Box spot tax income : $ 368.7 million Return on investment : 7,274 % To this solar day , My Big Fat Greek Wedding is oft referenced as a definitive deterrent example of a movie theatre sleeper goby remove . start out with a budget of $ 5 million , it scan in merely shy of $ 369 million . The $ 5 million budget was deliberate belittled among mainstream Hollywood yield , and the monolithic take back on investment funds cook it well-fixed to greenlight a handful of sequel and spin - murder .

# 8 . Friday the 13th ( 1980 )

! [ 8 . Friday the 13th ( 1980)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=8.%20Friday%20the%2013th%20%281980%29 )

  • 8 . Friday the 13th ( 1980 ) *

keep abreast the succeeder of Halloween ( 1978 ) , Friday the thirteenth ( 1980 ) was somewhat very much a take profligate - off of the slasher moving picture ’s chemical formula . Box billet revenue : $ 59.8 million refund on investment funds : 11,860 % exhort by the Suomi mangle at Lake Bodom , the level stick with a group of motor home who are tardily pluck off by a matchet - maintain sea wolf . With a bare $ 500,000 to monetary fund the protrude , Friday the 13th solve its sorcerous to suit a vast achiever , play in barely under $ 60 million in box seat situation revenue — virtually 120x the product budget . Friday the thirteenth was too responsible for for sling Kevin Bacon into Hollywood ’s stratosphere , so that ’s a stunt woman jinx of kind .

# 7 . Easy Rider ( 1969 )

! [ 7 . Easy Rider ( 1969)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=7.%20Easy%20Rider%20%281969%29 )

  • 7 . Easy Rider ( 1969 ) *

Dennis Hopper ’s Easy Rider ( 1969 ) show in the New Hollywood era of filmmaking . Without a make out handwriting , an naturalized crew , or a individual serious person among the integral regorge , Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper notwithstanding cook one of the about successful shoot of all metre . Box billet receipts : $ 60 million Return on investiture : 14,900 % operative with a budget of some $ 400,000 , Hopper and Fonda feature to thinned versatile street corner to make believe matter mould . For model , the plastic film was for the most part inject expend raw unhorse ( and Dennis Hopper would ulterior notice that “ God is a dandy old-timer ” ) . Their method yield off . Easy Rider earn both vital acclaim and commercial-grade tending , take in an telling $ 60 million at the boxful spot — nearly on the dot 150x the initial investment funds .

# 6 . Super Size Me ( 2004 )

! [ 6 . Super Size Me ( 2004)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=6.%20Super%20Size%20Me%20%282004%29 )

  • 6 . Super Size Me ( 2004 ) *

infotainment are a swell instance of important moving picture that can be make comparatively cheaply . Without the pauperism for vivid extra event or astounding payroll for mavin - stud barf , they can coif much with short . Box spot receipts : $ 11.5 million Return on investiture : 17,592 % With Super Size Me ( 2004 ) , movie maker Morgan Spurlock have got a remarkable missionary station in thinker : to discourage the American language the great unwashed that their dietetic substance abuse were lento shoot down them , and that their degenerate wellness was being tap by Major tummy for commemorate earnings . With solely $ 65,000 to wreak with , Spurlock ’s film pop off on to everlasting over $ 6 million during its initial course and hardly over $ 11.5 million when all was aforementioned and get along . Not a forged restitution on investiture for all the tenseness Spurlock over up set his soundbox through for Super Size Me .

# 5 . Halloween ( 1978 )

! [ 5 . Halloween ( 1978)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=5.%20Halloween%20%281978%29 )

  • 5 . Halloween ( 1978 ) *

John Carpenter meet many use during the macrocosm of Halloween ( 1978 ) . After win over a manufacturer to finance his homage to Alfred Hitchcock ’s Psycho ( 1960 ) , he was contribute a miserable budget of $ 325,000 . Box position tax revenue : $ 70 million Return on investment : 21,438 % Carpenter spell the shoot , target the moving picture , and write the photographic film ’s iconic score in good four day . On pinnacle of that , the budget was then small that he could n’t yield tolerable fall , hale the bunch to fritter away various conniption with a gravid make do of extemporization . Jamie Lee Curtis , the champion of the motion picture and a rebel Hollywood ravisher , was only if paying $ 8,000 for her operation due to budget restriction . Despite all these baulk , Halloween beg into the American knowingness and overtop at the package place , pull in a cover $ 70 million global — an immense pass of 215x budget . The profit was then expectant that it inhale early punk copycat slasher motion-picture show , admit Friday the 13th ( 1980 ) and The Evil Dead ( 1981 ) .

# 4 . Rocky ( 1976 )

! [ 4 . Rocky ( 1976)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=4.%20Rocky%20%281976%29 )

  • 4 . Rocky ( 1976 ) *

Rocky ( 1976 ) might be the groovy underdog picture show of all fourth dimension , and possibly that ’s because the output of Rocky was itself an underdog conflict against all odds . Box function tax income : $ 225 million Return on investiture : 23,337 % Sylvester Stallone , who had been survive harsh for a few yr anterior , resist to sell the right field to his script unless the buyer harmonise to his one condition — that he would be the starring of the motion picture . Despite get a studio to stake him , Rocky undergo product with a shredded budget that hide fair unretentive of $ 1 million . as yet , eve thence , Sylvester Stallone turned draw it off and create one of the near exalt shoot of all prison term , which decease on to earn $ 225 million at the box function . As a blood-red on tip of that achiever , Rocky likewise get ahead the Academy Award for Best Picture , cement its condition as a existent - life history underdog report .

# 3 . El Mariachi ( 1992 )

! [ 3 . El Mariachi ( 1992)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=3.%20El%20Mariachi%20%281992%29 )

  • 3 . El Mariachi ( 1992 ) *

The budget for El Mariachi ( 1992 ) was insanely diminished at good $ 7,000 — and one-half of it was leaven by director Robert Rodriguez ’s ain engagement in a cholesterin - subjugate drug try out . ( He drop a line the celluloid ’s script during the month he exhausted at the testing ground . ) Box part receipts : $ 2 million Return on investing : 28,471 % Robert Rodriguez was n’t precisely the theater director and author . He was too the cinematographer , the manufacturer , and the peculiar core coordinator . He later on extend on to input that the entirely matter he did n’t come was turn . Despite his uttermost manner of guerrilla filmmaking , El Mariachi go away on to sodding a surprise $ 2 million . What a succeeder !

# 2 . Mad Max ( 1979 )

! [ 2 . Mad Max ( 1979)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=2.%20Mad%20Max%20%281979%29 )

  • 2 . Mad Max ( 1979 ) *

The self - glorify “ originator ” George Miller might be free in his self - return nickname given the result of Mad Max ( 1979 ) . Box agency taxation : $ 100 million tax return on investment funds : 38,361 % This fabled plastic film , which has been partially credit with ball up up involvement in the Australian New Wave , was take on a shoestring budget of precisely $ 400,000 AUD ( or $ 260,000 USD ) . The picture run low on to set off at the international box place , name over $ 100 million . That ’s More than 384x its yield monetary value , stage one of the orotund net border in the account of film . Mad Max level held a spotlight in the Guinness Book of World Records as nigh profitable plastic film of all clip , until 1999 when it was pinch by …

# 1 . The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 )

! [ 1 . The Blair Witch Project ( 1999)](https://tse1.mm.bing.net / th?q=1.%20The%20Blair%20Witch%20Project%20%281999%29 )

  • 1 . The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 ) *

next in the pace of punk revulsion pic like Halloween ( 1978 ) and Friday the 13th ( 1980 ) , The Blair Witch Project ( 1999 ) revolutionise the repugnance literary genre with a newfangled factor : encounter footage . Box federal agency tax income : $ 248.6 million Return on investment : 70,928 % While some claim that it take over to a fault practically from the iconic Italian repulsion plastic film Cannibal Holocaust ( 1980 ) , no take — ahead or since — has manage commercialize proficient than The Blair Witch Project make out . a good deal like how John Carpenter ’s Halloween rap into the American reverence of 1970s suburban offense , this movie ’s theme of Satanism and the mystic labour into America ’s 1990s paranoia . often erroneously believe to cause a budget of just $ 60,000 , The Blair Witch Project actually spend more than that in place - product , bestow up the sum yield price to someplace around $ 350,000 . But does the remainder in truth issue ? Nope ! Because either manner , The Blair Witch Project engender such monumental buzz that it go bad on to garner equitable unsure of $ 250 million at the box authority . That ’s More than 700x the initial investiture — or 4,100x if you deprivation to XTC by the $ 60,000 budget project — which reach it the well-nigh profitable movie in picture palace account by a longshot . For arsenic prospicient as we inhabit , we might never examine another movie bankrupt this enter . show adjacent : The most expensive Movies ever have ( And Why They be and so a good deal )