10 Movies Made With Shockingly Low Budgets

5. Rocky

District 9 Wikus Sharlto Copley
MGM

The very first Rocky film is often considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made, which is why it's shocking to learn that it cost less than a million dollars to make. This was the film that launched Sylvester Stallone's career and earned him two Academy Award nominations, but it only cost $995,000 to make.

Rocky was shot almost entirely in Philadelphia with some scenes shot in Los Angeles. Because the production kept most of the filming in one location, the costs were able to be kept down, but there were other cost-saving measures in place for filming.

In a scene where Rocky and Adrian went on their first date, the skating rink was supposed to be full of people, but the production budget couldn't cover the cost of hiring so many extras. Other scenes like the one where Rocky points out that the banner over the ring had him wearing the wrong color shorts were the result of a prop mistake that couldn't be rectified due to cost.

Seeing as Rocky went on to earn more than 11,000% its budget in worldwide box office gross, it's hard to image it cost so little to make. On a budget of nearly $1 million, an entire franchise, as well as movie history, were made.

 
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