Worldwide Gross $922 Million Dollars(inflation-adjusted)
Impressive
shareYup, and when you factor in the budget and adjust it for inflation it's like a 10x return. And Raiders was even more - Raiders was made for under $20 million and made about $400 million, which is a 20x return.
That's why I always laugh about some of these BO figures that get released when compared to the budget and inflation and actual ticket sales. I mean studios are spending $300 million to hope to try to get 3-4x return, and that's before the theater split and taxes and everything else. It's why I'm not sure how much longer the system can sustain that level of financing, not when so much debt is being accrued by these production companies.
I think, and I could be wrong, but the most successful movie when combining inflation adjustments and actual ticket sales is actually Thunderball. That movie was HUGE in 1965. It could have also been Gone With The Wind or Star Wars or whatever, but the point is that it's not anything recent.
I believe the highest return as a percentage of budget was Blair Witch Project. It had a meagre $60,000 budget, so it's hard to beat.
"He's dusted, busted and disgusted, but he's ok"
Blair Witch and Halloween are 2 of the highest, as far as Budget Vs Gross. Halloween was on something like a $300k budget, did $40-50mil(Gotta double check) and of course Blair Witch is just absurd, although a fair amount was spent in Post Production, but still minimal in Cinema. Horror is the genre though. Even crap like 'Oujia' did $100+mil against a $1mil budget. Another Spielberg film(Post Production Financed) with 'Paranormal Activity' did insane numbers against a shoestring budget. These films started entire Production Companies(Blum House for example.) But obviously what Lucas did with Star Wars and Indiana Jones is just remarkable... Especially because they're EXACTLY what the Studios have been trying to replicate for decades now. Lucas and Spielberg get a ton of crap for changing the dynamics of Hollywood... Which is partly true... But the real reason is the Studio Heads who think you can just pick a Spielberg or Nolan out of a hat. Even guys like Ridley Scott and Scorsese took years to start making big productions and grosses.
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