Top 10 most profitable films of all time

There's a common business term known as return on investment (ROI). It's how much money something makes for the money put into it. You seldom hear it related to the money-sucking pit that is Hollywood.

 

The movie business is a gamble, and everyone knows it. When it goes bad, you wind up with a Heaven's Gate, which contributed to the slow painful death of United Artists in 1980. The film cost $44 million to make; it made $3 million, a pretty poor ROI.

 

Ahhh, but when business is good...

 

The most profitable film to date, according to Hollywood voodoo bookkeeping and CNBC, was 2002's My Big Fat Greek Wedding, with a budget of $6 million (inflation-adjusted) and gross revenues of $369 million. That makes an ROI of 6150%, 61 times its investment. Not too shabby for a film that drew an audience so slowly it never reached Number One.

 

Other films that made their backers happy are 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (3172% return); 2008's Slumdog Millionaire (2520% return); 1990's Pretty Woman (2013% return); and 1978's Grease (1975% return). No wonder otherwise sensible people roll the dice on movies. When it pays off, it pays off big.

 

Fishing for huge profits also means risking huge budgets. That's why Hollywood marketers are nervous as a nail in a hammer factory on a film's opening weekend. The 2011 animated Mars Needs Moms cost $150,000,000 to make and only scraped in $37,000,000, a loss of over $110,000,000. Ouch.

 

Spider-Man 3, by contrast, made $890,871,626 worldwide, which sounds like an out-of-the-park home run. Until you realize it cost $258,000,000 to make and about equal that to promote. A $890 million return when you spent a half-billion seems like not only a whopper of a risk, it's "only" a 178% return. Not bad, but nowhere near Greek Wedding percentages. With great budgets come great responsibilities, fiscally speaking.

 

There's another list of profitable films that Hollywood tries to ignore. They are the Ginsu Knives of filmmaking—they do the job, but no one wants to admit they have one. These are independent films with microscopic budgets and no stars, but make their investors back percentages that make 6150% returns look like chump change. 

 

According to The Numbers (a movie-industry boxoffice-tracking site), the real Top 10 most profitable films, based on return on investment, are:

 

No-name cast, a borrowed house, and a creepy idea, probably sparked by the success of 1999's The Blair Witch Project. Cost: $15,000. Revenues: $196,681,656 (655,505.52% return). Think about that. If you gave the filmmakers a buck, you got way over a half-million back.

 

Sure, you've never heard of it—it was mostly done with home movie footage and edited on a laptop. But with a budget of $218—you read that right—and revenues of $1,162,014, that's a 266,416.97% return on investment.

 

The pre-famous Mel Gibson in the indy that started a franchise. $200,000 budget, $99,750,000 bucks in ticket sales (24,837.50% return).

 

Morgan Spurlock's documentary about what makes us fat and unhelthy, with himself as a McDonald's guinea pig. Most likely inspired by the success of Michael Moore's films. Budget: $65,000. Income: $29,529,368 (22,614.90% return)

 

The running-nose freak-out indy that made even Hollywood sit up and take notice. $600,000 budget (though the filmmakers claim much less) with revenues of $248,300,000 (20,591.67% return).

 

The oldest on the list (1968). The one that launched a thousand zombies, put George Romero on the map, and the one Michael Jackson imitated in the Thriller video. It cost $114,000 and made $30,000,000 (13,057.89% return).

 

Yep, that Rocky. Sly Stallone, a bit player at the time, wrote the script himself. $1,000,000 budget, $225,000,000 at the box office (11,150.00% return).

 

Director John Carpenter and actress Jaime Lee Curtis both got famous along with blank-faced killah Michael Myers. Spawned seven sequals. Responsible for the most annoying musical score ever (also by Carpenter). $325,000 budget, $70,000,000 at the box office. (10,669.23%)

 

The pre-Star Wars George Lucas and Harrison Ford, and a cast of other unknowns including Richard Dreyfus. $777,000 budget, $140,000,000 in revenue. (8,909.01% return)

 

Kevin Smith's slacker epic. Just grab a camera and hang out with friends at the Quick Stop. Be sure to write lots of clever dialogue. $27,000 budget, $3,894,240 in ticket sales (7,111.56% return).

 

Take that, Hollywood pencil-pushers.