10 Films You Didn't Realise Were Gigantic Successes

Primer doesn't jump out as one of the most successful science fiction movies ever to be released in American cinemas.

Shane Carruth's baby boasted a uniquely structured plot and language/terminology which wasn't dumbed-down for a general audience, so it didn't exactly scream guaranteed commercial hit before its limited release thanks to a deal with THINKFilm in October 2004.

Yet, a Grand Jury Prize win at Sundance obviously stirred people into wanting to check out the complex time travelling flick and the film made $545,436 worldwide at the box office.

That doesn't sound like a whole lot on the face of it. But, for such an inexperienced crew to produce a film of this calibre on a miniscule budget of just $7,000, was quite simply staggering.

The deeply original project, which never compromises its quality despite having such a low budget, went on to become a cult watch for sci-fi fanatics and even earned a Best Feature Award at the London International Festival of Science Fiction.

Though it is now mostly remembered for being a niche feat of efficient high quality filmmaking, it's worth noting that Primer was also a massive financial success and deserves a great deal of respect for causing a splash in a genre which usually involved entries with embarrassingly bigger budgets.