I will cover a few in each category. I've seen a lot of great responses to low budget films. El Mariachi?, Primer, and The Blair Witch Project are all good examples. El Mariachi?, in particular, almost made for a great action movie and remains one of my favorite indie debuts. Here are two more examples:

Clerk: ($27,525)

This movie was shot for $27,525. To raise money, a young nerd named Kevin Smith sold his expensive comic collection, spent all his money on college, and maxed out 8 to 10 credit cards. He cut corners mostly by filming at his workplace when the grocery store was closed for the night. In the end, the film was picked up for distribution and played in no more than 50 theaters, grossing over $3 million at the box office. It became a landmark in independent cinema and launched Kevin Smith's career.

Following ($6,000)

Before Christopher Nolan became a household name, he made a 70-minute film on a shoestring budget of $6,000 The movie "The Following". To keep costs down, each scene was extensively rehearsed to save film. Nolan had a team of odd-jobbers who shot nearly a year's worth of footage on weekends. The film ultimately made $240,000 and received critical acclaim, which led Nolan to make Memento, which gained him further critical acclaim and attention.

These are two movies with incredible budgets. To me, these movies represent how much money can be spent on actors, overspending, and bloated productions.

How do you know ($120 million)

This movie cost $120 million. How about it? To put that in perspective, the movie cost more than twice as much as Deadpool ($58 million), not even accounting for six years of inflation. It's a romantic comedy, almost entirely dialogue, without any action or scenes. While a lot of the money can be explained by going to the director and star cast ($50 million, which is still too much), the remaining $70 million can only be explained by production delays and poor financial management. Just a waste.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($410 million)

To be fair, pirate movies have never been cheap. The first three were always more expensive than the next, with "At World's End" grossing $300 million at the box office. In a way, this makes sense, given the large sets being built, scenes that were difficult to shoot on water, and the increasingly complex special effects. However, despite giving up two big stars and scaling back its naval battles, the fourth film had a budget of an eye-watering $410 million ($379 million after rebates), making it the most expensive ever Movie. I just don't understand. There's nothing about the movie that suggests the budget was too high. If The Avengers? might kick off a massive urban alien invasion battle in New York with $220 million in A-rated viewership, a movie with a relatively small number of credits would cost almost two Times the money, that seems ridiculous.