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10 Iconic Movies and TV Shows made on Almost No Budget


Budget problems are the plague of any creator. Budget can make or break a film, show, or game sometimes. Yet, sometimes, the work transcends its budget. The creators creatively figure out to work with the lack of money or even use it to their advantage or other elements of the work are so good nobody minds how cheap it looks. Here are some works that are beloved by many (or at least some) that were made on almost zero budget. They’re an inspiration to us all, and show us that, truly, money isn’t everything. What’s your favorite cheaply made masterpiece? Did it make the list? Talk about it in the comments!

  1. The First Mickey Mouse Short (1928)

    I don’t need to tell you how iconic Mickey Mouse is. The first Mickey Mouse cartoon ever, Plane Crazy, was made on a budget of only $1,700 ($23,655 with modern inflation) in Walt Disney’s garage. One man, Ub Iwerks, was responsible for the entirety of the animation and he had to get it done in two weeks. He did 700 drawings a day to meet the deadline. 

  2. Doctor Who (1963)

    Though it’s a classic series, The original Doctor Who was made on an incredibly low budget. The stinginess of BBC back then meant the Time Lord’s tale had terrible special effects. For instance, one of the mosters was just two neon glow rings in a dark room. The sets were also incredibly delicate, meaning the actors had to move slowly.  The show’s most notable villains- the Daleks- were made out of egg cartons and a plunger. Even today, the budget for Doctor Who can be modest. 

  3. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

    Night of the Living Dead is considered by many to be the zombie movie. It earned itself five sequels and two remakes and is another one that got put in the Library of Congress. The movie was made with $114,000 dollars. Producer Carl Hardman said of the film, "We knew that we could not raise enough money to shoot a film on a par with the classic horror films with which we had all grown up. The best that we could do was to place our cast in a remote spot and then bring the horror to be visited on them in that spot".

    The low budget also meant a lot of the props were out of pocket. The blood was chocolate syrup and the entrails were roasted ham and such donated by one of the actors who owned some butcher shops. The costumes were secondhand clothes that either belonged to the actors or came from Goodwill.

  4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

    It’s probably not a surprise to learn the Arthurian Legend-inspired comedy was produced on a very tight budget. The budget constraints only added to the film’s funniness. The ridiculous bits with the knights miming horseback riding while followed by people banging coconut halves together in an imitation of hooves was because the picture couldn’t afford real horses.

    A scene zooming in on a location was also done just by filming a photo of the place. Candles were put under a picture to give it a “heat haze.” Altogether, the film was $400,000 to produce and took in $5 million at the box office, 

  5. Halloween (1978)

    The classic horror movie, Halloween, about a woman on the run from a masked killer, was made on a budget of $200,000. It took in $35 million, which, adjusted for inflation, would be around $100 million today. Because of the film’s meager budget, most of the props were either cobbled together from material that was on-hand or purchased from nearby stores. The mask the murderous Micheal Myers wears is actually a Captain Kirk mask, which was spray painted white and given widened eyeholes. It was only $1.98.

    The movie was popular enough to receive seven sequels, as well as a remake, and is preserved in the Library of Congress for being culturally significant.

  6. Mad Max (1979)

    Mad Max was a wildly influential and successful dystopian action movie about the vengeful battle between a former policeman and a roving motorcycle gang. It was made on a budget of roughly $400,000 and took in 100 million at the box office. Apparently, the film held the world record for “most profitable” from 1980-1991. It earned itself several sequels, including the recent acclaimed film Fury Road.

    Director George Miller and producer Bryan Kennedy himself paid out of pocket to increase the meager budget of the film. They worked emergency medical calls for three months to raise the money. Miller also donated his own car, a small blue Mazda Bongo, to be smashed up in the opening chase scene. That’s dedication!

  7. Red Dwarf (1988)

    Red Dwarf is a beloved sci-fi comedy show about the last living human trapped in space with a hologram and cat-person.  It was made on leftover budget from another show, Happy Families. The Starbug spacecraft on the show is rumored to be made of discarded lawnmower parts. Fans feel the low budget was important, as it forced the show to rely on the quality of its scripts to thrive. A later series with a higher budget was actually disliked by fans.

  8. Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

    Neon Genesis Evangelion is an incredibly influential anime. It inspired many that came after it and was even considered revolutionary by some. It was a giant robot sage that focused heavily on the broken psyches of its characters.

    It’s also one of the most famous examples of an anime running its budget into the ground. The 26-episode show was always rife with budget issues, leading to a lot of off model animation. It got worse as the series went on. Episodes had one minute long still shots and pauses that were almost certainly due to budget cuts. Basically, a lot of the series sponsors pulled out as the show got progressively darker, not wanting to be associated with it, which caused problems. Director Hideaki Anno's last minute rewrites of the scripts and changing the storyline halfway through production was doubtless a big contributor as well.

    This all culminated in the series ending with two episodes that had hardly any animation at all- it was almost entirely reused footage with still images, line drawings, text floating around and so on. These entire episode were basically an abstract look at the characters philosophically musing about their emotional issues.

    This ending was controversial, obviously, though the show itself was so philosophical and surreal in places it wasn’t too out of place. The creators decided to give the series a more definitive with a movie epilogue- but ran into MORE budget issues, meaning the movie (Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth) only had 27 minutes of new footage (the rest was a recap) and the ending was cut short.

    The studio finally managed to complete the rest of the film and released it as The End of Evangelion. It was as controversial as everything else about the show, but it was, at least, fully animated.

    Eva’s budget problems even extended to the English dub, which was on such a shoestring budget members of the production team ended up doubling as voice actors.

    Despite all these issue, Evangelion went on to make a huge amount of money for the studio, eventually leading to the current reboot movies, Rebuild of Evangelion, which are full of expensive, high quality animation. 

  9. Revolutionary Girl Utena (1997)

    Revolutionary Girl Utena was another heavily influential anime classic that told a very surreal story. In Utena’s case, it heavily deconstructed fairy tales and gender roles. It was also very clearly made on a low budget. Stock footage was very heavily relied on and animation could get off model.

    However, the use of stock footage ended up working with the themes of the series, since many of the characters were mentally trapped in endless, repeating cycles. Their surroundings also reflected that. Not to mention, the series focuses heavily on highly ritualistic sword duels. Sometimes, there would be subtle changes to the stock footage that showed something had shifted significantly for the characters. The finale even included several callbacks to significant stock footage that tied things together nicely.

    The low budget also didn’t stop the series from having striking visuals on occasion, making heavy use of stylized, abstract images, silhouettes and significant color choices.

    Like Evangelion, the series got a movie with an exponentially higher animation budget, leading to even more surreal but gorgeous visuals. 

  10. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

    This found-footage horror movie about some film students getting involved with the ghost of a witch has a famously low budget, supposedly costing only $25,000 to make (a lot was spent on advertising, though, making the final budget $60,000). In steep contrast, the movie took in nearly $250 million in box office. The cheap production helped the film seem more “authentic” since the conceit was that it was a “true story” haphazardly shot on a handheld camera. The film was promoted as “factual” with fake police reports, missing posters and newsreel-style interviews, which made it go viral.

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