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Alow-budget film orlow-budget movie is amotion picture shot with little to no funding from amajor film studio or private investor.
Manyindependent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or unknown filmmakers can also have low budgets. Many young or first-time filmmakers shoot low-budget films to prove their talent before working on larger productions. Most low-budget films that do not gain some form of attention or acclaim are never released in theatres and are often sent straight to retail due to their lack of marketability, look,narrative story, orpremise. No precise number defines a low-budget production, and it is relative to both genre and country. What might be a low-budget film in one country may be a big budget in another. Modern-day young filmmakers rely onfilm festivals for pre-promotion. They use this to gain acclaim and attention for their films, which often leads to alimited release in theatres. Films that acquire acult following may be given awide release. Low-budget films can be either professional productions oramateur. They are either shot using professional or consumer-grade equipment.
Some genres are more conducive to low-budget filmmaking than others.Horror films are a very popular genre for low-budgetdirectorial debuts. Jeremy Gardner, director ofThe Battery says that horror fans are more attracted to how the films affect them than seeingmovie stars. This allows horror films to focus more on provoking a reaction than on expensive casting choices.Thriller films are also a popular choice for low-budget films, as they focus on narrative.Science fiction films, which were once the domain ofB movies, frequently require a big budget to accommodate their special effects, but low-cost do-it-yourselfcomputer-generated imagery can make them affordable, especially when they focus on story and characterization.Plot devices like shooting asfound footage can lower production costs, and scripts that rely on extended dialogue, such asReservoir Dogs orSex, Lies, and Videotape, can entertain audiences without many sets.[1]
The money flow in filmmaking is a unique system because of the uncertainty of demand. The makers of the film do not know how well the film they release will be received. They may predict a film will do very well and pay back the cost of production but only get a portion back. Or the opposite may happen where a project that few think will go far can bring in more profit than imaginable. A big gambling variable that is also involved is the use of stars. Frequently stars are brought on to a project to gain the film publicity and fame. This process can be profitable, but it is not a foolproof mechanism to successful funding.[2] Well-known actors may join a low-budget film for a portion of the gross.[3]
Bruce Lee's low-budget 1970sHong Kong martial arts films were some of the most commercially successful[4] andprofitable films of all time.[5]The Way of the Dragon (1972) grossed$85 million worldwide against a $130,000 budget (a 65,000%return on investment), whileEnter the Dragon (1973) grossed$265 million worldwide against a $850,000 budget (a 31,000% return on investment).[6] Another example of a very successful low-budgetAsian film from the same decade was the 1975Bollywood "Dacoit Western" filmSholay, which cost₹20 million ($400,000)[7] to produce and grossed₹3 billion ($67 million), making itIndian cinema'shighest-grossing film ever up until then.[8]
Wayne Wang's filmChan Is Missing, set on the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown, was made for $20,000 in 1982.San Francisco Chronicle columnistHerb Caen wrote that the budget would not have paid for the shoelaces in the filmAnnie.[citation needed]
One of the most successful low-budget films was 1999'sThe Blair Witch Project. It had a budget of around $60,000 but grossed almost $250 million worldwide.[9] It spawned books, a trilogy of video games, and aless-popular sequel. Another successful low-budget film was 2007'sParanormal Activity, with a budget of only $15,000, the film went on to gross more than $190 million.[citation needed] Possibly an even more successful low-budget film was the 1972 filmDeep Throat which cost only $22,500 to produce, yet was rumored to have grossed over $600 million, though this figure is often disputed.[10]
Another film that not only had a major return on its investment but also had a huge cultural impact wasMad Max.Mad Max was made for $200,000 USD but returned over 100 million USD. It also started off a major franchise that resulted in another 3 movies.[11]Mad Max held theGuinness Book of Records record for most profitable movie for 20 years, eventually beaten byThe Blair Witch Project.[12]
Rocky was shot on a budget of $1 million and eventually grossed $225 million worldwide, makingSylvester Stallone a star.[13][14]Halloween was produced on a budget of $325,000 and grossed $70 million worldwide.[15][16]Napoleon Dynamite cost less than $400,000 to make but its gross revenue was $46 million.[17] Divisions ofmajor film studios that specialize in such films, such asFox Searchlight Pictures,Miramax, andNew Line Cinema, have made the distribution of low budget films competitive.[18]
The UK filmMonsters is a recent successful example of bringing what was once considered the exclusive preserve of the big studios—the expensive, special effects blockbuster—to independent, low-budget cinema.[19] The film's budget was reported to be approximately $500,000,[20] but it grossed $4,188,738[20] at the box office.
A considerable number of low- and modest-budget films have been forgotten by their makers and fallen into thepublic domain. This has been especially true of low-budget films made in the United States from 1923 to 1978 (films and other works made in the US during this period fell into public domain if their copyrights weren't renewed 28 years after the original production). Examples include a number of films made byEd Wood orRoger Corman.
Some low-budget films have failed miserably at the box office and been quickly forgotten, only to increase in popularity decades later. A number of cheaply made movies have attained cult-film status after being consideredsome of the worst features ever made for many years. The most famous examples of this latter-day popularity of low-budget box-office failures includePlan 9 from Outer Space andManos: The Hands of Fate.
Additionally, some low-cost films that have had little (or modest) success upon their initial release have later been considered classics.The Last Man on Earth was the first adaptation of the novelI Am Legend byRichard Matheson. Due to budgetary constraints, the vampires in the film were zombie-like creatures instead of fast and agile monsters portrayed in the novel. This approach (and film) was not considered a success at the time, but it inspiredGeorge A. Romero's work in his filmNight of the Living Dead. Thus,The Last Man on Earth became a precursor to numerouszombie films, and fans of those films later re-discovered the original, making it a cult classic.
A micro budget film is that which is made on an extremely low budget, sometimes as little as a few thousand dollars. An example of such would be the popular 1992 filmEl Mariachi, in which the directorRobert Rodriguez was unable to afford second takes due to the $7000 budget. Despite this, it was a success both critically and commercially, and started the young director's career.
Some of the most critically acclaimed micro-budget films were by theBengali film directorSatyajit Ray, his most famous beingThe Apu Trilogy (1955–1959). The first film in the trilogy,Pather Panchali (1955), was produced on a shoestring budget[21] ofRs. 200,000 ($3000)[22] using an amateur cast and crew.[23] The three films are now frequently listed among thegreatest films of all time.[24][25][26][27] All his other films that followed also had micro-budgets or low-budgets, with his most expensive films beingThe Adventures of Goopy and Bagha (1968) at Rs. 600,000 ($12,000)[28] andShatranj Ke Khilari (1977) at Rs. 2 million ($40,000).[29]
Another example would be the 1977cult filmEraserhead, which cost only $10,000 to produce. DirectorDavid Lynch had so much trouble securing funds that the film had to be made over a six-year period, whenever Lynch could afford to shoot scenes.
Slacker, a 1991 comedy-drama film written and directed byRichard Linklater, was produced for $23,000.[30] The film was inducted into theNational Film Registry in 2012.[31] Influenced by the success ofSlacker,Clerks was written and directed byKevin Smith for $27,575 in 1994 which he paid for on hiscredit card and grossed $3.2 million in theatres.Clerks launched Smith's career as a director and he has made several considerable higher budget films.[32]
In 1998,Christopher Nolan's first filmFollowing was filmed on a budget of £3,000. Nolan then received another £3,000 to "blow it up to 35mm".[33]
Primer is a 2004 American science fiction film written, directed and produced by Shane Carruth, a former mathematician and engineer, who also starred, and was completed on a budget of only $7,000.[34]
Also in 2004, thedocumentaryTarnation had a budget of $218.32,[35][36] but grossed $1,200,000.
In 2007 theTribeca Film Festival premiered the first film shot in a cell phone. Dutch avant-garde filmmakerCyrus Frisch shot the 70-minute film, titledWhy Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad in Afghanistan for only $200 on a Sharp 903 cell phone, with its built-in 3.2-megapixel camera.
Paranormal Activity, a 2007 horror film written and directed by Oren Peli, was made for $15,000 and grossing about $193,355,800 (adjusted by inflation: $283,390,562).[37]Entertainment Weekly criticOwen Gleiberman gaveParanormal Activity an A− rating (A being the highest mark) and called it "frightening...freaky and terrifying" and said that "Paranormal Activity scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare clichés."[38]
One Cut of the Dead (2017), a low-budget Japanesezombie comedy film, was produced on a budget of¥3 million ($25,000) and went on to gross over¥3.12 billion ($28 million) at the Japanese box office, where it made history by earning over a thousand times its budget.[39][40]
Johannes Grenzfurthner's horror filmsMasking Threshold (2021) andRazzennest (2022) were both made for a budget of EUR 20,000. Both films premiered atFantastic Fest and were well received. Grenzfurthner talks about his productions and financing in lectures and interviews.[41][42][43]
Only a small amount of academic research has been conducted on the economic impact of low-budget feature-film production. Two studies conducted from a British perspective includes Steve Chibnall'sQuota Quickies: The Birth of the British 'B' Film[44] andJC Crissey's doctoral thesisThe UK low-budget film sector during the 'digital revolution' between 2000 and 2012: a quantitative assessment of its technological, economic and cultural characteristics.[45]
A month after Bruce's death,Enter the Dragon was released. (...) The film went on to gross over$200 million, the ratio of cost to profit making it perhaps the most commercially successful film ever made.
Three weeks after Bruce Lee died Enter the Dragon was released in the United States and became an instant hit. The movie, made for around $800,000, made$3 million in its first seven weeks. Its success spread to Europe and then worldwide. It would eventually make over$200 million, making it one of the most profitable movies of all time.
Enter the Dragon cost just $850,000 to produce and by 2006 had earned more than$265 million at the box office. And with a mere $130,000 production budget,Way of the Dragon went on to gross more than$85 million.
