Most expensive looking low/ mid budget movies?

[FlamedLiquid]

Chronicle

15m budget

I'd say it looks at least double that.

[Socko]

Originally Posted by OABJYU

Wasn't JAWS only $8 million?

And the "shark still looks fake" - Marty McFly

[BluGalaxy]

Originally Posted by D00mM4r1n3

Harcore Henry (2015) reported budget was $2 million ($2.5 million adjusted for inflation), for an action/sci-fi that starts off on an airship that's pretty darn good.

Ok, that's really impressive. I knew it was lower budget but I was expecting 10-15m

[Martoto]

Originally Posted by OABJYU

Wasn't JAWS only $8 million?

You’re gonna need a bigger budget.

[RFK]

Italian genre films, as previously mentioned like those photographed by Mario Bava and Roger Corman's US productions knew how to stretch a dollar. Independent films working with non union crews could also make 20 million dollar looking productions for only 1 or 2 million. Joe Dante's The Howling, made for 2 and a half million looks as good to me as American Werewolf that cost 4 or 5 times as much.

[cheez avenger]

Pope's Exorcist was made for 18 million and shot in Spain and Italy. It looks 2-3 times more expensive and it made a profit.

Considering Renfield cost 65 million and looks subpar by comparison.

[Jay H.]

Originally Posted by mar3o

The entire score for Battle Beyond the Stars was re-orchestrated again for the awful "Wizards of the Lost Kingdom". It's the exact same score, just performed by another orchestra.

I'm pretty sure that score was reused for Space Raiders as well.

[Trekkie313]

Creature aka Titan Find

[carrowsmith89]

Nightcrawler (8.5 Million)
Drive (15 Million)

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Trekkie313

Creature aka Titan Find

Good one. Still looks great on blu-ray. Looks much more expensive than it probably was. Great production design.

[moreorless]

Hard To Be A God - $7 million.

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

Halloween (1978)
Upgrade
Phantasm: OblIVion
Hardware
Nemesis (1992)

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

The Duellists

That's about $8 million total for all six.

[Walter Kafka]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

That's about $8 million total for all six.

In reference to Nemesis, Albert Pyun was great about stretching his money. I'll throw in Cyborg as evidence. That may be one of his highest budgeted movies! So I'll throw in the sadly neglected Radioactive Dreams.

[Member-866753]

Looper - $30 million

and most of it probably went to Bruce Willis.

[zen007]

THX 1138 (1971)

Lucas’ directorial debut film. I watched its Director’s Cut recently and was surprised to find that it was made on a budget of $777k.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by zen007

THX 1138 (1971)

Lucas’ directorial debut film. I watched its Director’s Cut recently and was surprised to find that it was made on a budget of $777k.

His director's cut had tons of CGI added like the SW editions. If you can watch the original TC version, then I agree about stretching the budget.

[zen007]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

His director's cut had tons of CGI added like the SW editions. If you can watch the original TC version, then I agree about stretching the budget.

I am not sure if the theatrical version is even available. Adding/enhancing is less likely to inflate the budget by much considering that Sci-Fi films can cost millions (For reference, 2001's budget was around $10-11M in the mid-60s).

[NDcowboy]

SPIDER-MAN LOTUS had some pretty awesome VFX for a $100,000 fan film.

[D00mM4r1n3]

Kung Fury $630,019, I wonder if that budget included The Hoff.

[Zivouhr]

Kung Pow. They were able to achieve those slow motion cow effects for $10 million budget.

But seriously, The Creator movie, for $80m budget, looks really good.

Even better, District 9 was made for $30m. and looks mostly really realistic IMO.