September Club

From the rural town of Preston, Idaho, comes Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder). With a red fro, his moon boots, and illegal government ninja moves, he is a new kind of hero. His family consists of fragile brother Kip (Aaron Ruell), who’s seeking his soulmate in online chat rooms; Uncle Rico (Jon Gries), who is stuck in his “glory” days of high school football; and Grandma (Sandy Martin), who enjoys going out to the dunes on her quad-runner. Napoleon spends his days drawing magical beasts, working on his computer hacking skills to impress the chicks, and begrudgingly feeding his Grandma’s pet llama. When his friend Pedro (Efren Ramirez) decides to run for class president, it is Napoleon to the rescue to help him triumph over adversity.

Made on a budget of merely $400,000, the film debuted with $116,666 on its opening weekend and built to $1.6 million by its seventh weekend. The success of the film spawned merchandise (especially t-shirts) based on Napoleon and even a short-lived animated series. It would eventually gross over $40 million and become one of the most successful independent films in history.