Steven Spielberg’s first full-length film had a profit of one dollar!

Back in 1964, a 16-year-old Spielberg wrote and created the sci-fi flick Firelight on a shoestring budget of just $500. Therefore, Steven used several of his friends from high school in the cast and shot many of the scenes in his own garage. He even composed the film’s score on clarinet himself and then had his high school’s band record it for the final soundtrack!

The finished product was shown at the Phoenix Little Theatre in Arizona to an audience of 500 people. Admission was $1 per person, but one guest must have paid double because Steven came out of the debut with a profit of $1! Most of the reels for this flick were lost by a producer later on, his directorial debut is widely considered to be 1971’s Duel. However, the surviving reels show glimpses of his distinctive visual style, even at such a young age. Firelight also served as a foundation on which Spielberg was able to base the plot for his 1977 blockbuster hit Close Encounters of the Third Kind.