10 Great Low Budget Movies Which Cleaned Up At The Box Office

7. Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels

The first wave of great British crime dramas began in the early 1970s with the release of Get Carter and continued on through the decade finishing off with the release of The Long Good Friday. After that there was something of a dry spell for Britain's on-screen hard men, but this changed with the release of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998. A fast-paced heist movie starring Jason Statham in one of his earliest roles and British footballer Vinnie Jones playing a hard man character which he'd revive throughout the rest of his cinematic career, it showcased Guy Ritchie's restless camerawork and signalled the beginning of a new era of British gangster movies. As with Halloween, much of what followed was inferior and imitatory, and what it lacks in depth and subtlety it more than makes up for with its boundless energy. Budget: $1.35 million Box office: $28.3 million