With the new black comedy, the ultra low-budgeted (but really quite good) THE DRUMMOND WILL released on DVD in the UK from Monday 8th August, we thought we’d take a look at a few other shoestring budgeted movies that hit the big time upon their release. Here we look at five of the success stories released in recent years that prove that you don’t need the mega-millions to make it in Tinseltown.
5) EL MARIACHI – Budget: $7,000
El Mariachi
What can you get for $7000 these days? A bottom of the range car, or maybe the first round at a THN Christmas party? Back in the very early 1990s, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez famously made an all out action movie for just that amount. Funded by a spell at a drugs test clinic in Texas, Rodriguez took to the dusty streets of borderland Mexico with a 16mm camera and a very basic script. He came back with a piece of movie history, El Mariachi. Rodriguez sold the movie to Sony’s Columbia Pictures, and it went on to make a staggering $2,000,000 and even spawned a sequel/ remake in the form of 1995’s DESPERADO.
4) CLERKS – Budget $27,000
Clerks
Kevin Smith is perhaps more known these days for his famous podcasts (or Smodcasts as they are referred to) and controversy rather than his films, but in 1994, the guy that went on to direct flicks like DOGMA, CHASING AMY, ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO and erm, COP OUT, was just another stoner from a small town in New Jersey. Smith was determined to make a movie, and scraping together $27,000 from a fistful of credit cards, the bearded wonder had a budget for a film that was to become CLERKS. Now a cult classic, the film was picked up by Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax, and has gone on to earn well over $3,000,000 in receipts, not to mention a sequel in 2006.
3) ONCE – Budget $150,000
Once
With a budget of $150,000, I can hear you arguing that this is not much of a shoestring. Granted, but I thought that ONCE wa worth a mention as John Careny’s film made a staggering $20,000 back from the box-office and huge DVD sales, largely due to the superb word of mouth that it received. Shot around Dublin, Ireland using locations like the actor’s friends houses, the film took the very simple approach, and the result is a touching romantic musical drama that won over critics across the world. The film even received an Oscar nod in 2007 for best song. I urge you to hunt it down now.
2) PARANORMAL ACTIVITY – Budget $15,000
Paranormal Activity
The most recently released film on our very short list is PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, which was released in 2009. The film is included not because its ‘footage found’ set up was particularly original, but for the fact that it still managed to scare the living daylights out of cinema goers in the ten years after the next film on our list — all from a budget of just $15,000. A sequel to the film followed in 2010, and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 follows in 2011, but they will both have to go a long way of beating the original’s $150,000,000 in receipts.
1) THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT – Budget $22,000
The Balir Witch Project
The legendary phenomenon that was THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT arrives when the internet as we know it today was in its infancy. It took a hold of the new media to use its marketing to its full advantage. This is the original ‘footage found’ feature, and was made for just $22,000 back in 1999. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez invented a beast and its format has been copied and redone a million times since with films like REC, the aforementioned PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and the bigger-budgeted CLOVERFIELD. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT went on to make a huge $248,000,000. Yes, from a budget of just over twenty grand. This hasn’t been beaten since. I don’t think it ever will.
THE DRUMMOND WILL is released on DVD on Monday 8th August 2011.
