10 Movies You’ll Be Shocked To Hear Were Huge Box Office Hits
8. American Graffiti (1973) - $140m
George Lucas' second feature established the young director as a hugely promising talent to keep an eye on, with American Graffiti landing five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. With a budget of less than $800,000, the 60's-set coming-of-age tale would go on to become a critical and commercial smash hit and over 40 years later still ranks as one of the most profitable movies ever made. American Graffiti was released in the summer of 1973 and reissued in 1978, with the combined domestic box office estimated to be around $115m. Adjusted for inflation, the movie's worldwide box office total of an estimated $140m equates to well over $500m in today's currency. With Lucas proceeding to spend the next three decades of his career working almost exclusively in the Star Wars franchise, it's frequently overlooked that A New Hope wasn't the director's first box office smash hit.
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