In Hollywood, it doesn’t matter if your movie gets bad reviews; what matters is the box office. Any movie can overcome subpar critical reception, as long as the audience is willing to show up. The live-action Transformers movies are proof of this, with films like 2014’s Transformers: The Last Knight earning $1.105 billion at the global box office against a dismal approval rating of 18%. Even this year, the Michael Jackson biopic has been stuck with the dreaded “rotten” splat since before it premiered, but it’s made over $855 million since then. That said, the film has a reported budget in the neighborhood of $200 million, giving it an impressive 4.2x multiplier from budget to box office.
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Sometimes, the path to profitability comes from making a project cheaply and just hitting big upon release, and no genre is better suited for this than horror movies. Though horror movies have a clear pattern of being runaway hits at the box office, largely being cheap to produce and attracting a huge audience no matter the quality sometimes, there are some box office success stories in the genre that fully break the mold of Hollywood’s box office game. A film like Michael may have a 4.2x multiplier, but some horror movies have managed to make more than 100x their original budget, and some push it even higher.
8) SAW
Production budget: $1 million
Global box office: $104 million
James Wan’s directorial debut is one of the best examples of modest budget and box office success. Produced independently and then acquired by Lionsgate after a successful premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Saw had a reported production budget of $1 million but would stand out from the other movies that were released at the same time, opening against the PG-13 remake of The Grudge and the Ray Charles biopic. With its inventive plot, iconic twist ending, and grisly violence, the film scratched an itch for audiences that catapulted it to major success, earning $104 million globally and giving it a 104x multiplier. Though the style of violent horror movies it would inspire is well-trodden territory now, at the time Saw was fresh, giving way to a full franchise with impressive multipliers and eight of its ten movies making more than $100 million globally.
7) Friday the 13th
Production budget: $550k
Global box office: $59.8 million
Sean S. Cunningham was inspired by another film on this list that we’ll get to shortly, taking the idea of a cheaply made horror thrill ride and using it as a business plan to thrive at the box office. What he delivered was Friday the 13th, the mystery slasher movie all about a killer at a camp, but like Saw before it, the film was able to draw in an audience not only because of its grisly violence and big twist, but just generally shocking imagery for the time. Like Saw, it didn’t matter that Friday the 13th got mixed and negative reviews; it was made for just over half a million dollars, riding the success of months in movie theaters to make almost $60 million globally, for a multiplier of 108x.
6) Halloween (1978)
Production budget: $325k
Global box office: $70 million
The film that would inspire Sean S. Cunningham to make Friday the 13th had an even more impressive hold on the box office. John Carpenter’s Halloween may have fundamentally changed the horror genre for the rest of time, but the film was produced for just $325,000 in total and would go on to make $70 million globally, giving it an impressive 215x multiplier. A key reason that this film took off, beyond the filmmaking craft apparent in every frame (which helped!) is the tremendous word of mouth that the audience created, with friends telling friends telling friends to see this movie.
5) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Production budget: $140k
Global box office: $30.8 million
Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror film was a frightening artifact at the time of its release, but it was an impressive feature for a slew of reasons, including using every dollar of its budget on screen. Chain Saw was able to take audiences by surprise not only with its shocking imagery, but by leading them to believe that it was rooted in reality, a fact that helped propel it to box office success, and since it was released prior to the home video market it played in theaters for years. All told, Chain Saw has managed at least $30.8 million globally from the original film alone, giving it a 220x multiplier. Like so many others, it spawned a franchise, though none have a multiplier quite this high.
4) Obsession
Production budget: $750k
Global box office: $166 million (and rising)
One of this year’s biggest box office success stories is Curry Barker’s Obsession, which has been driven to numbers and percentages that continue to defy box office mathematics and stun pundits, and a lot of it comes down to the word of mouth that audiences have generated around the film. As of this writing, and if you’re reading this later, it’s almost certainly changed and become even more impressive; Obsession has brought in $166 million at the global box office, including growth from weekend to weekend, which is already unheard of in modern Hollywood box office numbers. Right now, Obsession has a 221x multiplier, a number that will only grow as it continues to reign in theaters.
3) Night of the Living Dead
Production budget: $125k
Global box office: $30.2 million
Having gotten his start working in documentaries, commercials, and industry films (including a segment for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood), George A. Romero was able to channel what he knew from working in these realms that operated on small budgets for his feature film debut. Night of the Living Dead shocked audiences with its extreme violence for the time, which helped push it to over $30 million at the box office for an impressive 264x multiplier.
2) Paranormal Activity
Production budget: $215k
Global box office: $193 million
Oren Peli’s found footage horror movie completely changed Hollywood when it was released, not only because of how much money it was able to bring in but the impressive profit margin it posted thanks to a low budget. Though the initial version of the film was shot for just $15k, reshoots for the movie after its acquisition saw the budget rise an extra $200k, which is still nothing compared to some movies. Once again, though, Paranormal Activity had good marketing but was propelled to a rare box office treasure trove thanks to the tremendous word-of-mouth campaign that sprang up from audiences who were blindsided by the film. When all was said and done, the film that cost less than a quarter of a million dollars made over $193 million globally, for a multiplier of 897x.
1) The Blair Witch Project
Production budget: $60k
Global box office: $248.6 million
Before Paranormal Activity, the real grandfather of found footage, Hollywood-altering horror was 1999’s The Blair Witch Project. Made for $60k in the woods of Maryland, the film by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sรกnchez had extra money put behind it before it finally arrived in theaters (with just under a million dollars spent on it ahead of its release). But, like so many others, the film had a robust marketing plan and a word-of-mouth campaign that any producer would kill for, resulting in a global box office over $248 million. Comparing its box office to its production budget, Blair Witch Project has a 4,133x multiplier; even if we factor in the extra costs for the film (which estimate it to be $200k), that still would give the film an impressive 1243x multiplier. Any way you slice it, the success of The Blair Witch Project is legendary.
