7. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Budget: $8,000,000. Worldwide Box Office: $100,221,296
Little Miss Sunshine was a 2006 film starring Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Paul Dano and was the directorial debut of husband/wife duo Jonathan Drayton and Valerie Faris. The intriguing backstory of the film was that while being shown at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, its distribution right were picked up by Fox Searchlight, in a record deal of $10 million. Clearly, Fox saw potential in how the story would translate to audience and therefore took the plunge to distribute it worldwide. However, Little Miss Sunshines success would depend on the critical reaction it would receive, as its dark humour would have been seen to be a tough sell for marketers. Ultimately, Little Miss Sunshine was a critical success and from its $8 million budget, the film took back a total of $100 million. The success of projects such as Little Miss Sunshine demonstrates the perspective that bigger studios now see with small budget films. With a promising premise, studios are looking to take the risk, with financial losses being minimal for flops in comparison to the gains that can be made with a hit.
Other notable 2006 hits:
The Queen Budget: $15,000,000. Worldwide Box Office: $123,384,128 Once Budget: $160,000. Worldwide Box Office: $20,710,513