Paramount Pictures bought the rights to The Godfather before Mario Puzo even finished the book, paying a measly $12,500 advance for what would become a cinematic masterpiece.

A closer look

Paramount Pictures bought the rights to The Godfather before Mario Puzo even finished the book, paying a measly $12,500 advance for what would become a cinematic masterpiece. At the time, mafia movies were considered box office poison, so the studio thought they were just buying cheap pulp fiction. Little did they know they were essentially purchasing the foundation of modern cinema and an eternal aesthetic for guys who make quoting Al Pacino their entire personality. It is truly inspiring to remember that one of the most culturally significant pieces of media in human history was greenlit purely because a studio executive wanted a cheap gangster script to fill out their release schedule, proving once again that Hollywood is less about visionary artistic genius and more about throwing pocket change at desperate writers and accidentally striking gold!