Passage Summary: Big movies make a lot of money compared to what they cost, but most of the money the movie industry makes overall actually comes from cheap movies.

Reasoning: Big-budget movies are individually very profitable (grossing 2–3 times their costs), yet the bulk of the movie industry's total revenue is generated by low-budget films.

Analysis: We have a classic volume versus margin puzzle here. While individual blockbusters are cash cows, the industry's total revenue is dominated by low-budget films. To resolve this, we should look for an answer that explains why the sheer number of low-budget movies outweighs the high individual earnings of the big ones. It turns out that a mountain of pennies can indeed outweigh a handful of gold coins.