The Most Profitable Film in History

Hollywood's greatest financial success is not what you'd expect.

Support the Channel:

References and Further Reading:

Music List:

[EmperorLemon]

Thank you to Opera for funding my cinematic dreams.

[foxdie]

"Throughout Hollywood's obsession with making movies more profitable, they forgot how to make them valuable." truer words have never been spoken

[sebastianwittenkamp]

I worked the movie theater when BWP came out. Hard to overstate how big an impact it had. We were asked all the time to walk people to their cars after the movie because they were scared.

[Thisispick]

What I love about BWP is that less recognized faces as the leads works so well in making it feel like a real event. Immersion would have gone right out the window if there were big name actors in place of the selected cast.

[Jaykooooo]

Just to put into perspective how convincing the marketing campaign was - the actors family and friends started getting calls wishing them condolences because people were so convinced that they had really died.

[lordfizzz]

I grew up in a tiny farm town on the cusp of it being developed into suburbia. This movie was so impactful that somebody or bodies took the time to decorate an old abandoned shack deep in old dirt bike trails with the wood symbols from the BWP and like headless barbies and all that. I mean were talking a hundred decapitated barbies and even more of those symbols. I was old enough to realize it wasnt something paranormal or whatever but at the same time was old enough to realize the effort this person or people went to make this little shack so freaking unnerving.

[SmoothCriminal]

One thing I remember Matt Damon say was that previously, studios were more willing to take risks with films because VHS/DVD sales would generally be able to make up any underperformance at the box office.

But now that home media sales are at an all time low due to streaming, now studios aren't willing to take those same risks.

[FlameIsLucky]

its insane that the directors for the Blair Witch Project weren't even present for a majority of its filming. It was pretty much all in the actors hands to create the film... and it worked beautifully.

[thatonechick]

I always tell people that Blair Witch Project was an experience. I saw it in theaters back in 1999. I was 14. The internet was so new and it wasn't as simple as going online and finding out it was fake. Found footage was a very niche genre and not many people had ever seen it before. And their marketing campaign had fake FBI websites and everything. Back then people didn't genuinely know if it was real or not. Today most people hate the movie because there aren't special effects, no loud music, and no jump scares. Since I saw it when it was in theaters (and as a young teen) this is still one of my absolute favorite horror movies. Great fucking video, my dude.

[kingchuckfinley]

The Blair Witch Projects marketing is the greatest of all time. I was around 12 when it came out and I was so scared of the movie. We all thought it was real at school and I found the website and it was so real to me. Really brilliant.

[JD-vekn]

i was 8 when this movie released. as a kid obsessed with horror movies in a sparsely-populated, heavily forested community in northeastern Canada, this movie scared the HELL out of me. i will always remember my first time watching it

[KeebeThePlush]

The most disturbing thing is that if the actors where in real fear and really got unexpectedly hurt on set, they could of been seen as just acting really well

[LucidMakesVideos]

The ambiguity of the "5-letter word" setup being changed from the obvious answer (money), to the correct answer (magic) is incredible script writing. Hats off to EmpLemon!

[inversion]

Emp videos are always the most cinematic. A very high form of storytelling.

[jureigeeksoutoccasionally]

I have a special love for this movie. I grew up not even a mile away from one of the forests they used as a filming location, and it’s wholly shaped my entire creative existence.

[KodyeWhobrey]

I think napoleon dynamite is a worth mention.

Budget: 400, 000
Box office: 46, 000, 000

[fives]

BWP is such a specific moment in history nestled right at the start of the digital age. It's got such a unique feel to it that really feeds into the narrative. There will never be another film like it.

[dutch_asocialite]

Surreal to hear a case where the critics are right liking a film and the audience is wrong hating it for once. I guess the past really is a different time after all.

[mattc]

The most profitable film in history is MORBIUS (2022), it made a staggering 1 MORBILLION dollars in the box office

[CoachNolan]

My old film professor often used the Blair Witch project as example to show how budget doesn't matter. He also used it as an example of protecting yourself when making deals because if i remember right the creators made a deal for it's distribution in which they didn't receive any royalties/residuals.