The Most Profitable Horror Film of All Time, The Blair Witch Project, Paid Its 3 Stars $24,000... In Total

The Blair Witch Project is the most profitable horror movie of all time.

Stars of The Blair Witch Project (Heather Donahue, left, Joshua Leonard, middle, Michael C. Williams, right).Photo byRob Gemmels via robgemmelsview.com (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Filmed over 8 days with a $60,000 budget, the 1999 mind-bending pseudo-documentary earned an eventual $248,000,000 USD at box offices.

But, its actors were paid in exposure, each earning a $1,000 day rate.

In an interview with VICE, one of the stars, Heather Donahue, explained the reality of filming the indy flick, on a shoestring budget,

"There was no meal penalty or meal breaks. We were shooting 24/7 without meal breaks, with nobody really directing us."

Although, at the time, each of the starring cast (Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard) was happy to have work, they were left wanting after the movie took off, gaining widespread notoriety.

After speaking publicly about their pay, in an interview with the Philidelphia Inquirer, Heather recounts how the marketing team tried to smooth over the situation,

"The next week I received a fruit basket. The crap kind with pears and water crackers and mostly packaging."

In the same interview, Heather described the strange disconnect between being Hollywood's newest star, and feeling like "the poorest new famous person in America":

"On a brutally hot July day, the 1984 Toyota Celica I bought with my temping pay when I moved to LA overheated (again), only this time it happened under a billboard with my face on it. I sat there, under my enormous face, waiting for the car to cool down, thinking: "Surely this will work out?"

In life, it's often better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. But, the cast's success left something to be desired, with each cast member going on to have little success in Hollywood following the mega success of the first-of-its-kind film.

But, they can take solace in knowing they will be a part of horror history, forever.

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