Sci-fi on a shoestring

Movies are big business and big business means big bucks. Last year a record three films raked in more than $1bn each in gross revenues: `Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2??, `Transformers: Dark of the Moon?? and `Pirates of the Caribbean: on stranger Tides??. a closer look at these box office record breakers reveals that they have several things in common: they are all franchises, they all share estimated budgets in excess of $100m ($150m, $195m and $160m respectively) and they are all packed with computer-generated imagery.