Prey has become one of the biggest success stories of the year so far, as the Predator prequel has a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than the original and it has quickly become Hulu’s biggest movie ever. But what makes that an even bigger achievement is that the film managed all of that without a single big name attached. It’s a rare feat for a movie to become so successful without a bankable star, and only a couple of films achieve it every year.
Redditors have debated which movies they think were most successful despite their lack of star power, whether they became cult classics or were instant hits. Between a couple of teen comedies, a $30,000 black and white movie, and an action flick where the cars do the talking, these made the most out of their unknown casts.
American Pie (1999)

American Pie was like lightning in a bottle, and it’s the ultimate raunchy teen comedy of the late 90s and early 2000s. It was a huge trend at the time, and they all made hundreds of millions, but American Pie was the most successful, and that’s an even bigger achievement considering it had the least amount of star power too.
TempleToons notes, “Most of the cast of American Pie was relatively unknown when it came out in 1999.” Even after the movie’s release, the supporting cast became bigger movie stars than the lead actors. Sean William Scott starred in four major movies between the 1999 release and its sequel, and Eugene Levy became a fan favorite and is now having a second wave of success with the TV series Schitt’s Creek.
The Witch (2016)
Too_much_mustrd4 points out The Witch as being a huge success despite its lack of star power. After just three films, director Robert Eggers has quickly become an auteur and audiences know what to expect from him. His movies are generally jaw-droppingly beautiful with dark themes and some kind of psychological element. And while that’s the case with the newly released The Northman, which got Eggers has best reviews yet, the movie bombed at the box office.
However, the filmmaker’s debut movie, The Witch, was the exact opposite. The movie has a similarly dark tone and is one of the best films about witchcraft, and it was a huge hit at the box office, making $40 million, which is 10 times its budget. And it did so without any star power whatsoever. The movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy, who might be a bankable actor now, but that wasn’t the case six years ago, and the movie even help boost the actor’s profile.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)
AgentUpright recalls the unstoppable force that was My Big Fat Greek Wedding when it was first released. The Redditor comments, “Tom Hanks produced it, as I recall, but it was a runaway success despite the mostly lesser-known cast (Joey Fatone notwithstanding.)” The movie had an all but unknown cast, and it somehow became a huge phenomenon, making more than what some blockbuster superhero movies make today.
The 2002 release is one of the highest-grossing independent movies of all time, making a huge $368 million worldwide, and as it had a production cost of a tiny $5 million, it made over 70 times its budget, which is almost unheard of. If the film made as little as $30 million, that would still have been considered a huge success, and an extra $330 million is a huge bonus.
Avatar (2009)
Lostpatrol mentions Avatar, commenting, “Sam Worthington and Zoey Saldana were complete unknowns and Sigourney Weaver was doing voice work at the time.” Based on box office success, Avatar is the best example bar none. Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time and that’s thanks entirely to the high concept, the advanced digital effects, and the ahead-of-its-time 3D.
However, the movie was originally supposed to be led by a movie star, as director James Cameron wanted Matt Damon to play Jake Sully. According to Collider, Damon was even offered 10% of the gross profit, which would have been over $250 million, but he turned it down, and it’s a decision that he’s probably been kicking himself over ever since. But what’s interesting is that after Damon turned it down, the studio went in a completely opposite direction and cast an unknown.
The Fast And The Furious (2001)
Umbert360 recalls the success of that starless 2001 movie that started a billion-dollar, ten-movie-plus franchise. The Fast and the Furious had a huge ensemble cast and one that was impressively diverse at the time, but they were almost all unknowns. While the franchise went on to become all about the friendship between Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom (Vin Diesel,) nobody paid to see The Fast and the Furious for Walker and Diesel.
Walker had been in a couple of box office bombs beforehand, and though Diesel had some modest success with voicing The Iron Giant and starring in Pitch Black, the real stars of the movie were the souped-up cars. The 2001 film led a whole 2000s zeitgeist that bled into video games and the streets, as everyone who saw the movie wanted to be a street racer, and because of that, the 2001 movie became an instant classic.
Risky Business (1983)
Jackieirish points to what must have been impossible to market, Risky Business. The Redditor notes, “Risky Business had no bankable star at the time of release, but it was a huge hit and launched Tom Cruise.” Not only was there no discernable star, but the film is all about how a teenager inadvertently becomes a pimp, and it must have been the Warner Bros. marketing team’s nightmare.
But against all odds, it was a huge hit. With a box office gross of $63 million, that doesn’t sound like much by today’s standards, but it’d be a lot more when adjusted for inflation, and it’s especially impressive that the lead actor of the movie was unknown and 20 years old at the time. Risky Business made 10 times its budget, and it’s the first example of Cruise’s charisma and how audiences will show up in droves to see him on the big screen.
Clerks (1994)
Jjohns0203 compliments the vulgar, profanity-filled low-budget comedy Clerks for its success despite its lack of star power. The Redditor notes, “Clerks was filmed with a really low budget with no name actors and developed a cult following and became very profitable”. Only a few movies can call a $3.2 million box office gross a success, but with a microscopic budget of less than $30,000, Clerks’ box office performance was phenomenal.
The film made a hundred times its budget, and that’s all despite being shot on 16mm black-and-white film stock, having extremely choppy editing, and, of course, absolutely no star power. The film was not only a box office success relative to its budget, but it has become a huge cult hit, the legacy sequel Clerks 2 was released in 2006, and the callback-filled trailer for Clerks 3 was just recently released.
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
Medical-Pace-8099 refers to a very recent movie that did unexpectedly well at the box office, Everything Everywhere All at Once. The movie stars Ke Huy Quan, who played Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies, but has been in almost nothing else in the 37 years since. It also stars Stephanie Hsu, who has never had a prominent role before.
However, the film is led by Michelle Yeoh, and while she isn’t the actor anybody would expect to lead a complex and abstract movie to a box office gross of $100 million, she was a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies and starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the most prolific actors working today. But Everything Everywhere was almost going to have a lot more star power, as Daniel Radcliffe was almost cast in an unknown role.
Superbad (2007)
Greg Mottola’s ‘Superbad’
Corpsefire77 believes Superbad was a huge success without any star power, commenting, “Never heard of any of those actors, now they’re all famous. Mostly Jonah Hill, but Michael Cera too to a lesser extent.” The movie isn’t entirely absent of big names in its cast, as it does feature Bill Hader and Seth Rogen. Hader was enjoying a successful run on Saturday Night Live at the time, and Rogen’s profile was ever growing due to cropping up in seemingly every single Judd Apatow-produced or directed movie.
However, those actors are in relatively small roles, and the three main actors were almost completely unknown at the time. Some viewers might have recognized Cera from playing George Michael on Arrested Development, but other than that, the cast was full of seemingly extremely talented teenagers who came out of nowhere. But one thing’s for sure, the movie’s success skyrocketed them to stardom.
Mad Max (1979)
Joks_away points out the 1979 movie as one of the biggest ever successes despite not having any big name actor behind it. Though Mel Gibson is a huge movie star and is known for fronting the Lethal Weapon series and being the face of countless action thrillers, that wasn’t the case in 1979. The then unknown actor starred in Mad Max, a micro-budget movie about a dystopian future set in the Australian desert.
The movie unexpectedly made $100 million dollars, and it started a huge franchise too. Since then, the series has gone from win to win, but it’s a wonder if Mad Max: Fury Road had been as much of a success if it didn’t see Tom Hardy in the lead role.
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