Okay, let me clarify....
I am looking at this from a general audience standpoint and not from a 'if I had a million dollars' standpoint.:
Okay, I understand that point of view. You and I probably like the same movies, because I love big budget FX flicks. But, aren't you trying to be a filmmaker? What about that standpoint of what budget you can really get versus what you can really make?
One day we'll all have budgets we can work with....:
After 30 years of making films, I can tell you that is not the slightest bit realistic. I think Rik is one of the few on the forum who has a shot at getting a multi-million dollar budget, since he works in the industry. The rest of us are outside, looking in. To you, a budget seems to be the amount to make your examples of SPIDERMAN or LORD OF THE RINGS. The odds of anybody getting a 150 - 200 million dollar budget is not much better than winning the lottery.
The main way someone gets into a prominent Hollywood position is by:
A. Knowing somebody very high up.
B. Working your way up from being a Production Assistant or tech.
C. Making a hit indie.
Examples of C include Robert Rodriguez - EL MARIACHI, Kevin Smith - CLERKS, Ed Burns - BROTHERS MCMULLEN, etc. These budgets ranged from approximately 7K - 25K.
There is another category, that is the 99.99% of people who will not write, direct, produce or star in a Hollywood movie:
D. The rest of us.
Setting up a light stand or being an extra on OVER THE TOP doesn't count, otherwise, I can say I made it. So, "the rest of us" have the option to take things into our own hands and hope to achieve C - "making a hit movie". My heroes include John Carpenter - DARK STAR, Sam Raimi - EVIL DEAD and Peter Jackson - BAD TASTE. I listed their first features, as they were indie breakthroughs.
It's easy to name the 1 percent who have made it. There are other indie filmmakers who haven't had worldwide breakthroughs, but they make money, nonetheless. I imagine you've walked into Blockbuster or some other video store. Half of those movies - the ones that take one or two slots, not the single hit that takes up a whole wall, but more than half are 5 or 6 figure budgets. It's a whole subgenre:
I know a lot of those people. Some of them got a little 5K deal from York, while others did okay. One of the guys who makes money at this, Matt, is on this board, so I hope he chimes in. He made:
DEEP HOLLOW
My friend Christian does the best out of the people I know. He makes the
RECON 2020 series. His first RECON was made for 30K and sold to 20 countries for 200K. Each movie makes more than the last. I have no doubt that he will have a hit, in the future.
In this day of age, you can get one source world-wide distribution, which can be a mistake. Or, you can sell to individual countries. Prices vary on whether you have name talent and many other factors. No name indies may fetch 5K to 50K for a U.S. deal. The money isn't great, so it's best to rack up as many countries as you can. I know one guy who got a 70K U.S. deal, but it's not that common if you make a 4K movie. Here are a couple of my foreign covers:
Japan
Thailand
So, these are the numerical results possible for most of us who won't make the 7 figure breakthrough.
A 100K budget (one of which grossed 10 mil) can be an equity loan or 4 credit cards, between a couple of producer buddies.
None of us are going to come up with the budget to make a 200 million dollar TERMINATOR SALVATION, but 100K is realistic.
If you or anyone on this board can show me a movie where you made significant money, I would like to hear about it. It's easy to site the very few blockbuster/famous examples, because they are so few, including. HALLOWEEN and THE EVIL DEAD had budgets (300K and 384K) that in today's dollars would exceed a million dollars. So, name me some much cheaper budgets, closer to 100K or less. That leaves EL MARIACHI, BLAIR WITCH and little else. OPEN WATER cost around 150K. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE - 400K.
To my knowledge, BLAIR WITCH is the
only 5 figure indie to make returns in the 100 million plus range. It stole the title of highest grossing indie from HALLOWEEN.
I can't leave the area to work (House, Kids in school, Wife has a tenured sped teaching position). I would love to fetch coffee for someone on set, it's a start 
