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10 Insanely Profitable Low Budget Films

Putting a very small amount of money into a project and then milking it for far more than you ever dreamed imaginable, if that isn't the American dream, then I don't know what is. For as much as Hollywood executives are bashed for being money grubbing sleazeballs, many of them really want to make quality movies. The problem is, if the movie is quality, but no one goes to see it, you won't be in a position to make movies for too long.

Halloween

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Halloween Reboot in the Works from Blumhouse and John Carpenter

Budget – $325,000

Worldwide Gross – $70,000,000

Return – 10,669%

Perhaps one of the most iconic, if not the most iconic horror film of the 70s, Carpenter’s effortless skill behind the camera works transformative powers to mould a film that looks 10 times what it actually cost. Halloween has since passed into the annals of horror history as the film which defines a whole new genre; the slasher.

Riding on the waves of contemporaries such as Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter had pioneered his career thus far on using low budgets to tackle genres usually requiring mega budgets. Halloween played it cheap but smart, tapping into the teen zeitgeist and preying on their fears.

Halloween is not gory, but instead relies on the excellent score (composed by Carpenter himself) and some incredibly deft camerawork and editing to crank up the tension and fear as Michael Myers preys on teenage babysitters. Critically adorned and marketed beautifully, Halloween was a hit that exceeded all expectations.