The Most Profitable Movie Of All Time
If someone asked you what the most profitable movie of all time was, what would you say? Chances are it'd be Titanic, LotR: Return of the King, or Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. While you would have guessed the top three grossing movies, you would actually be off for the movie with the best return over it's life.
To find out how much a movie actually returned on it's initial investment, you have to calculate the total made, divided by the amount invested, then multiple by 100. (money made/money invested)x100. This yields a nice, easy to judge figure that tells you exactly how profitible a movie was.
According to The Numbers, Titanic is far and away the highest grossing movie of all time (world wide numbers here). Raking in just shy of 2 BILLION dollars, it is by all accounts a huge success. But it is not actually the most profitable movie ever made. The chart below details the top 20 movies cost to make:
| Movie Name | Cost To Make |
|---|---|
| Titanic | $200,000,000 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | $97,000,000 |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | $150,000,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | $125,000,000 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | $94,000,000 |
| Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace | $115,000,000 |
| Jurassic Park | $63,000,000 |
| Shrek 2 | $70,000,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | $150,000,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | $100,000,000 |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | $109,000,000 |
| Finding Nemo | $94,000,000 |
| Spider-Man 3 | $258,000,000 |
| Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith | $115,000,000 |
| Spider-Man | $139,000,000 |
| Independence Day | $75,000,000 |
| Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope | $11,000,000 |
| ET: The Extra-Terrestrial | $10,500,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | $130,000,000 |
| The Lost World: Jurassic Park | $75,000,000 |
Data taken from The Numbers.
Here is the table that shows the most PROFITABLE movies
| Movie Name | ROI |
|---|---|
| Titanic | 917% |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 1164% |
| Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | 710% |
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | 780% |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 985% |
| Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace | 803% |
| Jurassic Park | 1460% |
| Shrek 2 | 1307% |
| Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | 595% |
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | 879% |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 797% |
| Finding Nemo | 922% |
| Spider-Man 3 | 330% |
| Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith | 738% |
| Spider-Man | 591% |
| Independence Day | 1089% |
| Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope | 7253% |
| ET: The Extra-Terrestrial | 7551% |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 610% |
| The Lost World: Jurassic Park | 1049% |
It's pretty clear that there are two movie that absolutly destroy all the others in terms of investment - E.T. comes out slightly ahead of the first Star Wars with an astounding 7551% return on investment. To put it in plain english - if you got that kind of return on a $5,000 investment over two years, you'd come out with $29,268,901. Pretty significant I'd say.
The obvious trend is that the lower the cost to make, the more chance for profits - so where does that leave low budget successes like The Blair Witch Project or An Inconvienent Truth? The latter has grossed $45,414987 - not sure what it costs to make, but for it to take the top spot it would have to cost just a shade under $602,000 - outside possibility considering it's a documentary, but I kind of doubt it. The Blair Witch Project, on the other hand, cost $60,000 to make (according to here) - and grossed $248,639,099 world wide. That comes to an R.O.I. of 414,398%! That pretty much takes the cake, but it also shows what it takes to make a movie with an earth shattering R.O.I. - a low budget, and a whole lot of luck.