'Super Troopers 2' and the 7 Other Fan-funded Movies That Got Over $1 Million

Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Kevin Heffernan in ‘Super Troopers’ (Everett)

Over the weekend, the cult comedy troupe Broken Lizard discovered the true value of nostalgia. They closed out a crowd-funding campaign for a sequel to their 2001 comedy Super Troopers with $4.4 million raised from over 50,000 fans. The final number qualifies the online fundraiser as a major success, blasting past the group’s original $2 million goal and verifying that turn-of-the-millennium teens and college kids now have a decent amount of disposable income. Now, the sequel will be released by Fox Searchlight, which put the original Super Troopers in theaters after it proved to be a surprise hit at Sundance in January of 2001.

The $4.4 million haul marks the second-most money ever raised online for a movie, following in the footsteps of another long-awaited follow-up: 2014′s Veronica Mars movie, which raised $5.7 million from rabid fans of the Kristen Bell-led teen detective series in 2013. So far, eight different film projects have raised over $1 million online, a list that we’ve broken down below.

Kristen Bell in ‘Veronica Mars’ (Everett)

Veronica Mars
Final haul: $5.7 million
Release date: March 14, 2014
The Scoop: The reigning champ, this project had all the elements required for major crowd-funding success: Source material that already boasts a rabid and geeky fan base, years of anticipation, and familiar stars to get the word out. The film raised $5.7 million from over 91,000 of those fans, but that proved a double-edged sword: All contributors received a digital screener of the film — a hand-out that kept many away from buying a ticket at the theater. The film made just shy of $3.5 million at the box office, and an undisclosed sum via same-day VOD.

Joey King, Zach Braff, and Pierce Gagnon in ‘Wish I Was Here’ (Everett)

Wish I Was Here
Final Haul: $3.1 million
Release Date: July 25, 2014
The Scoop: Nearly a decade after achieving critical success with his 2004 directorial debut Garden State, Zach Braff turned to the internet to finance his second movie. Whether it was because people thought he had a lot of Scrubs money in his back pocket, or because they had turned on the very of-its-time tweeness of Garden State, the fundraising campaign drew a fair share of critics — especially once Braff got more money from a traditional film financier. Still, over 46,000 people kicked in $3.1 million to make the campaign a success — though the movie was less of a triumph, with largely negative reviews and just $5.4 million at the worldwide box office.

Watch the trailer for ‘Wish I Was Here’ below:

Lazer Team
Final Haul: $2.4 million
Release Date: TBA
The Scoop: The popular Austin-based nerd production company, which makes videogame shorts and online shows, already had a hit web series called Red vs. Blue, which parodies sci-fi flicks and military video games. They decided to cross over into full-length feature films with Lazer Team, another sci-fi comedy. Even though they flew under the mainstream radar, the group tapped a fervent young fan base to take in over $2.4 million from over 37,000 donors on Indiegogo.

Watch the trailer for ‘Lazer Team’ below:

Gosnell Movie
Final Haul: $2.3 million
Release Date: TBA
The Scoop: Conservative documentarians Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, who previously made films about global warming and hydraulic fracturing, announced last spring that they were turning their cameras on the battle over reproductive rights. Their subject: Kermit Gosnell, the unlicensed abortion doctor who was given a life sentence for murder. The duo raised a whopping $2.3 million from nearly 28,000 donors via Indiegogo.

Sam Jones III, Gabrielle Dennis, Darin Brooks, Chris Romano, Alan Ritchson, and Ed Marinaro (Everett)

Blue Mountain State: The Movie
Final Haul: $1.9 million
Release Date: TBA
The Scoop: Here’s another example of the vast sums of money that dedicated fans of a cult TV show can raise. A raunchy Spike TV sitcom about a fictional college football team, Blue Mountain State only lasted three seasons, but is now set to continue on in feature film form thanks to a $1.9 million haul from 24,000 contributors on Kickstarter.

Adam Corolla in ‘Road Hard’ (Film Buff)

Road Hard
Final Haul: $1.5 million
Release Date: March 6, 2015
The Scoop: While former Man Show pal Jimmy Kimmel is one of late night TV’s biggest stars, Adam Carolla has his own internet empire that includes one of the most successful podcasts of all time. He tapped that huge online following to fund his second feature film as a director, Road Hard, which featured him writing, directing and starring as a comedian who is forced to go back on the road when times get tough. He raised $1.5 million from nearly 14,000 contributors. The film, which opened to modest reviews, made $113,000 at the box office, but was mainly a VOD affair.

Watch the trailer for ‘Road Hard’ below:

Stephen Tyrone Williams in ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ (Gravitas Ventures)

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Final Haul: $1.4 million
Release Date: January 23, 2015
The Scoop: Spike Lee, who has made some of the most important and influential movies of the last 30 years — many of them, like Malcolm X, for major studios — went back to his indie roots last year by turning to Kickstarter to fund a little vampire drama based on the ‘70s blaxploitation flick Ganja and Hess. Thanks to donations from both fans and famous friends like Steven Soderbergh, Lee was able to raise the $1.4 million to make the film, which was released both in theaters and on Vimeo.

Watch the trailer for ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ below: