Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/billion-dollar-movie-franchises-that-started-with-low-budgets/
Mad Max: From Shoestring Budget to Desert Epic
George Miller’s original Mad Max in 1979 was made on a budget of only $350,000. That’s barely enough to pay for craft services on a modern blockbuster. Comparing its box office success with its low budget, Mad Max won a Guinness World Record for being the most profitable movie ever made at the time. The highest estimates place the film’s global earnings at around one hundred million dollars.
Collectively, all the Mad Max films have collected around $540 million worldwide. What’s fascinating here is how Miller’s restricted budget actually shaped the franchise’s identity. Miller only set Mad Max in the future because it was cheaper to shoot in abandoned buildings. Sometimes limitations breed creativity in ways massive budgets never could.
Halloween: A Mask, A Budget, and Horror History
Halloween was released by Compass International and Aquarius Releasing in October 1978 and grossed $70 million on a budget of $300,000. Director John Carpenter practically filmed this on pocket change. The script for Halloween was written in less than two weeks and shot in less than 20 days in the spring of 1978.
Against a razor-thin reported budget in the $325,000 range, the film earned $70 million at the box office. That’s a return that would make any studio executive weep with joy….
—-
Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-01-20 12:32:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
—-
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8