10 Movies Made With Shockingly Low Budgets
6. Saw
Saw is another horror film that benefited from a low budget but saw a massive return at the box office. The movie, which starred Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, and many others ended up costing only $1.2 million to make, which is impressive compared to the box office total of $103 million.
That amount of money helped launch Saw as a franchise, but it all started in a single room, which is one of the biggest reasons the movie didn't cost much to make. One of the biggest expenses in filmmaking is establishing sets, flying people to their locations, paying fees, and more, but for Saw, it was all shot in one location.
Filming took place over the course of 18 days with a shooting budget of just $700,000, which meant they could only shoot between one to two takes per scene. This left the film looking "more gritty and rough around the edges" and that helped to develop what became the aesthetic of the film.
Another aspect that kept things on the cheap was the salary for the actors. Cary Elwes claims to have earned only $2,587.20 for his role. He has since sued for additional money due to a back-end deal for 1% of the profits he never received.