Six budget bands, every film in the catalogue with a real budget and a real gross, and the two columns nobody puts on the same page: what the money bought in ratings, and what it returned.
The figures reveal this charming disconnect between what executives spend and what audiences actually enjoy. While the blockbusters demand the lion's share of resources, their critical reception often sits well below the smaller projects that achieve far more with less. It seems the industry maintains the steadfast belief that throwing gold at the screen guarantees quality, despite the evidence suggesting that the middle tier offerings are those truly punching well above the rest with far more creative rigour.
Looking at the profitability, the most expensive tier shows the widest gap in the table between expectation and reality. These behemoths often struggle to break even, whereas the scrappy independent films frequently provide the most impressive returns relative to their modest costs. Studio bosses might insist they have the magic formula for success, yet the data indicates a group that barely moves the needle on critical acclaim regardless of how much gold is tossed into the fountain.
The bands
| Budget | Films | Median rating | Median return | Lost money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $5M | 2,853 | 6.8 | 155% | 24% |
| $5M to $20M | 3,636 | 6.4 | 41% | 41% |
| $20M to $50M | 2,365 | 6.3 | 38% | 41% |
| $50M to $100M | 1,001 | 6.4 | 89% | 28% |
| $100M to $200M | 452 | 6.6 | 149% | 13% |
| Over $200M | 120 | 6.7 | 179% | 12% |
Films with a budget above $100,000, a worldwide gross above $100,000 and at least 1,000 IMDb votes (n = 10,427).
The part that surprises people
Rating and return do not peak in the same band. They are not measuring the same thing and there is no reason they should, but the budget conversation is usually held as though a bigger number buys both.
The loss column is the one to read twice. It is the share of films in each band that did not make their production budget back at the worldwide box office, before a cent of marketing, before the exhibitor takes roughly half the gross, and before anybody is paid a residual. A film has to clear its budget several times over to be profitable in the sense a studio means, so treat every number in that column as the floor of the real failure rate rather than the figure itself.
Cheap films that came back hardest
| Film | Budget | Worldwide | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fist of Fury (1972) | $0.1M | $100M | 1000x |
| Animal World (2018) | $0.1M | $70M | 559x |
| Mr. Six (2015) | $0.2M | $139M | 557x |
| Secret Superstar (2017) | $0.3M | $137M | 480x |
| Open Water (2003) | $0.1M | $55M | 456x |
| The Gallows (2015) | $0.1M | $43M | 430x |
| Bambi (1942) | $0.9M | $267M | 312x |
| Mad Max (1979) | $0.3M | $100M | 286x |
Films made for under $20,000,000, ranked by return as a multiple of production budget.
Expensive films that did not come back at all
| Film | Budget | Worldwide | Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Notice (2021) | $160M | $0.2M | -100% |
| The Killer (2023) | $175M | $0.4M | -100% |
| The Gray Man (2022) | $200M | $0.5M | -100% |
| Frankenstein (2025) | $120M | $0.5M | -100% |
| Deewangee (2002) | $220M | $1.0M | -100% |
| The Irishman (2019) | $159M | $1.0M | -99% |
| Wake Up Dead Man (2025) | $210M | $4.0M | -98% |
| Manhunter (1986) | $150M | $8.6M | -94% |
Films made for $100,000,000 or more, ranked from the worst return upward. A negative figure means the worldwide gross did not reach the production budget.
Related surfaces.
Every figure above is computed from the Hollywood Metrics catalogue of 74,571 films at the time of publication, with the sample size and the filters stated under each table. Nothing here is estimated, and nothing here is rounded to make a point. Read how we work or check our forecasting record.
