The lowest-budget movie to make $1 million at the box office
Getting any kind of movie off the ground takes a minor miracle. Even though it might seem easy trying to tell a story through the visual medium, the amount of people that have to be paid, as well as the constant rewrites and effects used, is enough to push any director to the brink of insanity trying to get finalised. Although most movies can come with a heavy price tag by the end, it’s much sweeter when a cheap movie far outgrosses its initial budget.
Then again, new technology has led to many artists making a mint out of relatively minor setups. Thanks to the creation of the “found footage” medium of horror movies, various filmmakers have been able to get massive blockbusters off the ground by only using the bare essentials in filming, with everything from The Blair Witch Project to Creep benefitting from the unnerving aesthetic of a handheld video camera.
Before the genre had become widespread, many directors were making their luck on films with a reasonably small budget. When looking at the first projects from artists like Sam Raimi, for instance, the makings of what would become Evil Dead involved a small price tag, only to become one of the biggest cult horror movies ever.
Of all the great visionaries who have seen the power of using only a few elements in their production, none benefited more than Robert Rodriguez. Although he has become known for his work on films like Sin City today, Rodriguez has always believed that less is more, constantly using as little as he can to assemble his masterpieces.
Although 1992’s El Mariachi seemed like any other project for Rodriguez at the time, it would become one of the biggest blockbuster films to get by with the smallest budget. Telling the story of former inmate Azul, who escapes prison to take revenge on various drug lords who had wronged him in the past, the film only worked with $7,000 to get the whole thing off the ground.
Then again, the whole point behind the film was to keep things relatively in-house, including Rodriguez using various amateur actors to play the central roles of the film. Even though the film may have looked low-budget at the time, Rodriguez made more than he could have imagined for that small price, with the box office profits raking in $2million.
The story resonated with so many people that Rodriguez eventually continued on the same path for a trilogy of movies. Bringing in actors like Antonio Banderas, El Mariachi would have spiritual sequels in Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, rounding out what is today known as Rodriguez’s Mexico trilogy.
While the budgets may have gotten bigger in the years since, Rodriguez has still been able to use the most with only a handful of elements. Although there may have been a lot going into the making of something like Sin City, the movie’s aesthetic seems to be based on what can be done with minimal space, making something far more menacing by leaving pieces up to the audience’s imagination. Many directors may have to take the cheap way out during most of their first films, but El Mariachi is the ultimate example of doing a lot with a little payoff.
