The quality of CGI in film is consistently reaching new heights thanks to advances in technology and innovative teams capable of creating great visuals on a tight budget. CGI has developed over the last 50 years to be used in new and creative ways in film. Some movies, like Terminator 2: Judgement Day or Avatar managed to move the dial forward on what was possible using computer-generated images and effects. But there are also plenty of creatives who don’t have huge budgets and manage to deliver incredible visuals by working smart.
Whether that means subtly including CGI elements in unexpected ways, combining practical effects with CGI, or simply refining the edit until it’s perfect, it’s possible to create stunning CGI for less than $100 million. Movies like Forrest Gump and The Walk used clever techniques to deliver impossible images. Others, like The Creator and Paddington 2 created stories focused on CGI-enhanced characters that managed to blow audiences away thanks to their integration with real-world settings. Not only did these films manage to deliver incredible CGI, they did it without breaking the bank.
10 The Walk (2015)
Budget: $35 Million
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in The Walk, a film inspired by the true story of an ambitious tightrope walker who set out to cross between the Twin Towers in NYC. Philippe Petit managed to accomplish this incredible feat in 1974, but with the towers no longer standing, the film required a lot of CGI to recreate the most important sequence of the story. In reality, director Robert Zemeckis and his team only built one corner of the high-rise buildings’ rooftop as a practical set. Everything else, from the sky, the rest of the building, the opposite building, the skyline, and the onlookers below was made with CGI (via Box Office Mojo).
9 Paddington (2014)
Budget: $55 Million
Paddington tells the story of a young marmalade-loving bear who travels to London looking for a home. The film centers on a CGI bear that interacts with people, objects, and food. Thanks to the creativity and skill of the team behind the project, the CGI is largely seamless, and the fictional bear becomes incredibly realistic. These stunning visuals were delivered for just $55 million and spawned a popular sequel, Paddington 2, due to the success of the film (via The Numbers).
8 Twister (1996)
Budget: $92 Million
Twister follows Bill and Jo Harding, played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, a married couple who work together to create a whole new way to track storms. The only issue is, they need to get the device into the eye of a tornado for it to begin working effectively. The relationship is as chaotic as the storms they are chasing, and the visuals of enormous, violent cyclones and hurricanes are incredibly realistic and terrifying. Of course, the actors couldn’t really shoot scenes inside a tornado, so all of this was done via CGI on a lean budget of $92 million (via Box Office Mojo).
7 Hollow Man (2000)
Budget: $90 Million
The Hollow Man sees Kevin Bacon become invisible thanks to cutting-edge science and experimentation, but things go awry. In order to achieve the effect, the creative team had to create a complete and detailed computer model of Bacon’s entire body, including the capillaries (via Paul Verhoeven by Douglas Keesey). Every scene where Bacon was invisible or partially visible had to be shot twice, with and without Bacon, and then composited to deliver the intended images that made it into the final edit. The fact that this film was able to accomplish all of that for under $100 million is incredibly impressive (via The Numbers).
6 The Creator (2023)
Budget: $80 Million
The Creator, directed by Gareth Edwards, shows a world full of living robots and synthetic humans who long for freedom from the oppressive US forces. The film is full of CGI with enhanced humans that don robotic arms, synthetic humanoids with exposed metal and moving mechanical parts, and traditional robots that walk, talk, and interact with the rest of the cast. With a budget of just $80 million, this movie created a whole world and a cast of impossible beings, while also making it look completely real thanks to the incredible CGI (via THR).
5 Independence Day (1996)
Budget: $75 Million
Independence Day is a blockbuster action film starring Will Smith that is packed with explosions, alien spaceships, and alien creatures. Normally, getting all of that in a ’90s movie required lots of CGI, and a big budget, but despite requiring over 3,000 special effects shots for the film (via Entertainment Weekly), the team managed to deliver high-quality results with just a $75 million budget (via The Numbers). By using practical effects, models of ships, buildings, and aliens, and cleverly pulling it all together with the conservative and clever use of CGI, Independence Day delivered an epic film on a strict budget.
4 Jurassic Park (1993)
Budget: $63 Million
Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park had an even tighter budget of just $63 million and managed to bring gigantic dinosaurs to life (via The Numbers). Thanks to a combination of animatronics and CGI, the dinosaurs appear as real as the actors they appear on-screen with. One particularly impressive scene is when the Tyrannosaurus Rex is seen chasing the car as Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum try to escape; the steps of the dino cause debris to fly everywhere and the image of the gaping jaws in the rearview mirror adds to the intense terror and realism of this scene.
3 Forrest Gump (1994)
Budget: $55 Million
Forrest Gump may be an unexpected movie on a list for CGI, but there are a lot of visual effects utilized in the movie. Such as seeing Forrest meet a series of historical figures and physically interact with them, to removing the legs of Lieutenant Dan Taylor, and manipulating objects like the feather to interact with Forrest in unusual ways. Robert Zemeckis masterfully integrated existing footage, newer technology, and clever techniques to create something that appears real despite a budget of just $55 million (via The Numbers).
2 Cloverfield (2008)
Budget: $25 Million
Found footage films frequently have lower budgets, and Cloverfield is no exception. However, the visuals that Cloverfield is able to deliver despite its budget of $25 million are truly astonishing and terrifying in equal measure (via Box Office Mojo). Creating a New York City landscape that is impacted by terrible destruction from large aliens, monuments such as the Statue of Liberty being destroyed, and finally unveiling the creatures that caused all the chaos is no small task. Matt Reeves manages to use the CGI effects sparingly and create tension and drama thanks to clever filming and the performances in front of the camera, and it all comes together beautifully.
1 Ex Machina (2014)
Budget: $13 Million
Ex Machina is a movie that does a great job of stretching its $13 million budget out to create something that feels completely real and delivers genuine emotion and thought-provoking concepts (via The Numbers). The film is mostly shot in one location and has a small cast of characters, but one of the primary characters is a humanoid robot with a realistic face and a metal brain and body. The blending of skin and metal is incredible and Alicia Vikander delivers an outstanding performance as the advanced A.I. Ava. The film doesn’t suffer due to its budget, with the CGI bridging the gap and delivering an uncanny and otherworldly realness.
