4 Most Profitable Movies in History
Sometimes it happens that you spend nothing but getting a lot. For example, you win a jackpot with a 20Bet welcome bonus or buy the cheapest train tickets to your dream destination. The same thing is with these movies. They didn’t cost much and brought its director’s great profit.
Paranormal Activity, 2007
Director Oren Peli is a computer programmer, but he always dreamed of working in movies. He turned out to be not a very good actor. But one day Peli moves into a new house, and there’s always something creaking and banging and moving. Instead of losing his mind, he ran to write the script for Paranormal Activity. Soon, filming began in the same house, which went on for a little over a week.
After showing the film at a couple of film festivals, the guy opened the door to a fairy tale – the Paramount Pictures office. After screening Paranormal Activity in several American cities and seeing the satisfied scared faces and gray hairs of the audience, the company released the demon into the world.
The Blair Witch Project, 1999
Coming up with a scary story about the Blair Village Witch, the filmmakers sent three actors into the woods of Maryland. They knew only the basics of the plot: the film students disappeared while filming a coursework project about a witch. Virtually the entire film ended up being improvised and made up of footage shot on amateur cameras. No riders, no makeup, no special effects, and not even any musical accompaniment. Filming went on for eight days, the actors were rarely fed to make them even angrier, and the scary sounds were created by the filmmakers themselves – crunching branches, making noise, and howling.
Much more curious than the shooting was the subsequent advertising campaign. The Artisan company bought the film after the festival screening and brought the Blair Witch to life. The story was presented as a real one. The posters said the film was found in the woods. All of the cast were reported missing on IMDb. Critics called the movie a hoax, but who cared! Just as the Internet was booming, the publicity campaign was unrealistically successful.
Audiences wanted to believe the story, even if the film itself wasn't particularly scary.
Naomi’s Web, 2000
A cinematic phenomenon and the brainchild of Don Abernathy. This guy has tried everything: he was an actor (he was especially good at crowd scenes), a scriptwriter, a director, a producer, an editor, and even a cameraman. Abernathy got $500 out of his mattress and made a movie.
Naomi’s Web is a naive thriller about Naomi Richardson, a teenager who beats up her parents and ends up in jail. The therapist Elaine Marshall tries to understand her, but nothing comes of it. But Abernathy did a great job selling his film, which went especially well on VHS. The goofy dialogue, the weird plot points – none of that matters much, because it took $500 to make two million for a full movie.
The Road to Ruin, 1928
A silent black-and-white film about how tough New York City is. Her parents don’t give a damn about 16-year-old Sally, and she gets into all sorts of trouble long before Walter White does. The promiscuous life, especially the affairs with older men, leads to pregnancy and abortion.
Pretty Helen Foster, who played the title role, kept a bottle of smuggled whiskey handy so she could be tipsy during the right scenes. A sound version of the film was made in 1934.
