Today’s movie studios are spending astronomical sums of money on blockbuster franchise movies about superheroes and sagas set in far-away galaxies. But some of the most profitable movies in history have been made by independent studios and low-budget filmmakers.

The highest grossing movies of all time are often the most expensive to make. Titanic was a film that dominated the box office and the Oscars, but James Cameron was nearly suckered by the demands of the budget and risked bankruptcy if the film had failed. Films like these are very successful and take a lot at the box office but when measured against their production costs, they are not as profitable as the three indie films listed here, which performed way better than expected.

Clerks (1994)

Kevin Smith’s debut film seemed to define the 90’s slacker culture. Its budget came from personal credit cards and family donations and was filmed in between the opening hours of a convenience store while he was working there. Never completely sure of how much he actually spent on production, especially factoring in credit card charges and interest, the budget was somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000. It took more than $3 million at the domestic box office, more than 100 times its approximated budget.

Mad Max (1979)

The original Mad Max, not the more famous ‘Road Warrior’ sequel, was a breakout film for director George Miller and its star Mel Gibson. From a modest budget of $300,000, the Australian duo put together a classic that created a whole genre of movies. Mad Max’s total gross, across all world markets, was nearly $100 million dollars in 1979. It is no wonder that the success of the film, and its popularity with America’s then young cable TV networks, spawned three sequels, including a film from as recently as 2015.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

The quirky 2004 indie-comedy was a big hit in the early 2000s. The film struggled initially to get made, as film producers found the idea interesting but the character too awkward to be a hit in the box office. After pulling together a $400,000 budget, Napoleon Dynamite went on to take $46 million at the box office and be a cultural phenomenon amongst high-schoolers and college grads across the country. Made by a few friends who had a smart idea, you could achieve the same results with the right script and inspiration. Look at Film and video production in Houston to help take your movie from the page to the screen.

Some of Hollywood’s biggest names started out their career in a small movie that introduced them to a bigger audience and their best performances are often found in these indie hits. The big studios may be missing out on big profits by neglecting the smaller scale films. There are huge opportunities for big returns from small budget movies, while the latest big superhero epics cost hundreds of millions of dollars in computer generating scenes and even whole characters.