Films that were hits without featuring a cast of Hollywood stars

We could have done a list solely consisting of horror movies with no stars that became hits, even spawning franchises. Not wanting that to be the case, though, we put in a conscious effort to mix it up. Even so, we are starting with an iconic, franchise-starting horror movie. In addition to solidifying the career of beloved director John Carpenter and a young actress named Jamie Lee Curtis, “Halloween” popularized the slasher genre in many ways. All that, and the biggest star is character actor Donald Pleasance, not exactly a headlining name.

The story of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is an incredible one. Nia Vardalos crafted a one-woman show of the same title to try and give her career a boost. The play proved a hit, actress Rita Wilson saw it, and she brought it to the attention of her husband Tom Hanks. This led to Hanks’ Playtone production company helping to get “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” onto the big screen. Made for a mere $5 million, the movie was a huge hit, one that ran and ran and ran. Though it never was the number-one film in the domestic box office, it made $241.4 million domestically, making it the highest-grossing film never to be number one until “Sing” in 2016. It remains the highest-grossing romantic comedy ever.

Credit/blame “Cloverfield” for the rise of the “found footage” horror movie (though it was far from the first, as we will get to). Shot cinema vérite style as if though the characters in the movie are actually filming with a handheld camera (an effect we personally found nauseating, not engrossing), the monster movie was a big hit built on novelty and also aggressive marketing. It also led to two spinoff sequels — one worthwhile, one an utter flop.

The highest-grossing independent movie ever. That was, for some time, the designation of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” It had already been a cult comic turned into a cartoon for children, and the 1990 movie kind of split the difference between the arch violence of the former and the fun, pizza-loving vibes of the latter. While Corey Feldman did lend his voice to Donatello, that’s the closest we get to a star in this one.

Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” is one of the most important indie films ever made. It has nobody approaching a known actor, much less a star, but it also remains a cult classic without much in the way of a significant audience. “Dazed and Confused,” Linklater’s follow up to “Slacker,” wasn’t a hit in theaters, but it’s now considered a classic, and not just of the cult variety. It’s been called one of the best high school movies ever made. It helped that Linklater cast a lot of future stars, but they were not known names at the time of “Dazed and Confused.” In the cast you can find Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, and the breakthrough actor of the film, Matthew McConaughey.

Shot in Idaho independently with also no budget (it was shot with $400,000 available), “Napoleon Dynamite'' starred the unknown Jon Heder, with the most notable name being Diedrich Bader, who flew out to shoot for a day because he thought the script was interesting. After a successful showing at Sundance, “Napoleon Dynamite” made its way to theaters, where it became one of the biggest cult hits of the 2000s. Making $46.1 million off that paltry budget, the film minted Heder as a movie star (for a little while, at least) and eventually spawned a FOX cartoon show.

When it comes to films, we prefer to laud the quality of the acting, directing, and so on. However, when it comes to “The Blair Witch Project,” arguably no movie has ever had better marketing. The premise took the found-footage conceit to a whole new level. “Blair Witch” purported to be actual footage taken by a real documentary film crew. Moviegoers were left to wonder if they were seeing a supernatural snuff film. As such, true unknown actors were required. Even somebody who had gotten one line on “Major Dad” would have been too much! It worked, because it was a massive hit.

Ang Lee’s directing is effectively the star of “Life of Pi.” He did win a Best Director Oscar, his second, after all. The look of the film popped for people, and “Life of Pi” was a huge box-office success. Yes, the technology led to a budget of a robust $120 million, Lee is borderline obsessed with the advancement of film tech, but the movie made $609 million and was an Oscars darling.

“Paranormal Activity” is essentially “The Blair Witch Project” with modern technology. The central couple set up a camera in their house — fortunately with night vision, for our sakes — to try and capture what is happening in their house. Turns out, it’s spooky! “Paranormal Activity” has become a true-blue franchise, perhaps the biggest horror franchise of the new millennium. They’ve even gotten into quasi-spinoffs at this point.

As the story goes, Kevin Smith saw Linklater’s “Slacker” and was inspired to make a film of his own. He shot “Clerks” with his friends, mostly overnight at the actual convenience store in New Jersey he worked at. It was the first step toward Smith becoming an iconic director, beloved by many, noted for his spotty filmography by others. Whether or not you are a fan, “Clerks” became a cult hit, started a career, and also made a ton of money based on its meager budget.

Teen movies, like horror films, often aren’t built on stars, because most teenaged actors aren’t famous yet. “American Pie” is a defining teen sex comedy and spawned a franchise. If you were a teenager in 1999, it had an impact on your life. All the teens were not stars at this point, though a few would become them. Also, Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge would win Emmys in the future, though Christopher Guest players aren’t stars, per se.

One of the biggest action franchises ever started with a cheap action flick as much about the cars as the actors in the film. “The Fast and the Furious” was not envisioned to make movie stars, or to bring nearly every movie star imaginable into the fold. Now, Vin Diesel had been in “Pitch Black” the year prior, but he was not yet a movie star. Playing Dominic Toretto made him a star.

George Miller was an Australian doctor who got into making films. He ended up crafting a famed action franchise. It all began with “Mad Max,” which was once called the “most profitable film” by the Guinness Book. Mel Gibson would go on to be one of the biggest stars in the world (and persona non grata among the non-anti-Semitic out there), but “Mad Max” was only his second movie, and you don’t remember “Summer Nights” unless you are an expert on ‘70s Australian films.

Also known as “The VVitch,” this “folk horror” movie is set in Puritan New England. It was one of the first appearances from Anya Taylor-Joy, but she was not a star at this point. Considered one of the best horror movies of the 2010s by fans of, ahem, “elevated horror,” the movie was not only a springboard for Taylor-Joy, but also director Robert Eggers.

You may be thinking, “Wait, that's a Tom Cruise movie!” Indeed, it is. “Risky Business” is also the film that helped springboard Cruise to fame. The year 1983 is when he began to head toward stardom. He had a supporting role in “The Outsiders” that year as well, but “Risky Business” was his star turn. Cruise danced to “Old Time Rock and Roll,” as you might remember. It helped make the movie a hit.

After making Hollywood films like “Blade II” and “Hellboy,” Guillermo Del Toro got to make a real passion project. His historically-based fantasy film is set in the early days of Francisco Franco’s fascist regime, and the Spanish-language film was able to become a hit, and a critical success, in the United States as well as the rest of the world. One weird note. The title of the film in Spanish is “El Laberinto Del Fauno,” or “The Labyrinth of the Faun.” There is indeed a faun in the film, and Pan is a faun. However, Del Toro has said the faun in his film is NOT Pan. Whoever chose the English-language title just didn’t care.

George A. Romero didn’t invent the zombie subgenre, and he doesn’t even use the word “zombie” in “Night of the Living Dead,” but it remains the proto-zombie film as we know the concept. Shot on a slim budget with a cast of unknowns, it made $30 million in its run, a huge success. It’s considered one of the iconic horror movies, though a quirk probably played a role in that. A mistake by the original distributor led to “Night of the Living Dead” not being copyrighted, which meant it fell into the public domain. That made it much easier to screen, air, and thus be seen.

All these horror films, let’s end on a nicer note. “Once” charmed audiences around the globe with the story of two star-crossed musicians (and would-be lovers) who make beautiful music in the time they are in one another’s lives. The story is so elemental that the leads are only listed as “Guy” and “Girl” in the credits. A big part of the success is also owed to “Falling Slowly,” the song from “Once” that took home an Oscar.