There are only 4 budgets in the movie industry :

(1) the Blockbuster Budget

(2) the Hyphen Budget

(3) the Million Dollar Budget and 

(4) the Micro Budget.

The Blockbuster Budget is a budget so big that it is marketed as the most expensive film in the history of cinema. The first was Gone With The Wind, the next one, the first million-dollar film was Cleopatra. Films like the Titanic, Waterworld etc are marketed as hugely expensive so we, the punters, will go to see what 100+ million looks like on the screen.

The Hyphen budget is marketed as between 40 and 45 million, as if the anal accounting department cant remember what happened to five million dollars! Can you believe that? It is the budget of a standard Hollywood film, and the actual production costs on a thirty - seventy million-dollar film are at most a few million, with the balance spent on stars and promoting the film. 

The Million Dollar Budget is your typical entry-level independent film and the budgets are expressed as: 1.4 mil (sex, lies and videotape) or 800 thou (Lock Stock) 1.1 mil (Shallow Grave) 1.1 mil (Blood Simple) These films don’t usually have stars, and are story driven. 

The Micro budget is broken down into three sub categories:
Under a million = low budget
Under 500 thousand = Micro Budget
Under a hundred thousand dollars/euros/pounds = No budget Films like Pi, Blair Witch, Clerks and the brilliant The Following by Raindance alumni Christopher Nolan fall into this category.