Is it possible to make a successful film without spending a fortune?

Rating: 6/10 (22 July 2008)

I just returned from seeing The Dark Knight this afternoon and although it was reasonably entertaining I have to wonder if a really successful movie can be made today without throwing truckloads of money into the project and relying almost totally on whiz bang special effects and mass destruction of cars, buildings etc etc.
I also thought that it was a little remiss of the director that in a number of scenes it was very hard to hear what Gary Oldman was saying. I actually have no idea what he said in the fairly key final scenes, bearing in mind that his were the last words of the movie, and the people I saw the movie with made the same comment.
In 1960 Hitchcock made a movie with his TV crew for a budget of under a million dollars and shot the film in a matter of weeks. If it hadn't been for the shower scene, he would have completed the project even quicker. I would like to see one of the major directors like Spielberg, or Christopher Nolan, make a film with a low budget and see what they could come up with.