10 Movies That Smashed The Box Office With A Totally Unknown Cast
2. Blair Witch Project
The hand-held/ found-footage horror genre is an obvious reservoir of high-grossing films with relatively obscure casts, but The Blair Witch Project really kick-started this type of movie-making, for better or worse. While it is arguable that Cannibal Holocaust is the first example of the found-footage genre, this is the first of the format to reach a wide audience beyond horror nerds. It almost goes without saying that a film of this nature could only work if the audience suspends disbelief to such an extent that they dont consider the actors to be actors at all. The aim here is to convince viewers that they are witnessing reality shockingly unfold before them. So successful was the found-footage device, aided by a cast of unknown actors, that controversy stirred regarding whether this was a real documentary or not. The actors in this film were so obscure upon release that it would be perhaps be wrong to call them actors at all; they even use their real names throughout. Anyway, for a film shot for almost no money, distributed on the internet and featuring no real professional acting talent, this did stunningly well at the box office, making $250m worldwide. Basically $250m more than it cost.
