There are a lot of movie lists going around right now. It’s the season, after all, for movie lists. The Best Movies of the Year Lists generally wrapped up a few weeks ago, and now lists are focusing on Awards season.

Today I read more than one list from prognosticators that predicted the Oscar Nominations. Tomorrow, that list will be announced. Which I will duly read, express outrage at, and write my own list in response. That list will inherently contain other lists. Which movies have racked up the most awards from critics groups? What about Nominations from the Guilds? What about the list of the best movies left off the lists of Award Nominated movies? It’s out there, surely.

Then, there’s the plain old business. Who won the Box Office last year? How much did the year 2014 pull in at the domestic box office? How does that compare to other years at the Box Office? What about the global box office?

Marvel had a good year. Guardians of the Galaxy is on a lot of lists. It’s number 1 on the annual Box Office list. Others have it on their list of the year’s best (like me).

All these lists. Lists everywhere. I love them. I write them.

But it got me wondering: What are the lists that matter? The movie industry makes movies to make money. There are other reasons, to be sure. Winning awards matters, and the Box Office returns (or lack of) prove it. But first and foremost, movies are made to make money for studios, who can use that money to make more movies.

ROI, that’s called. Return on Investment. It’s great to make $770,000,000 on Guardians of the Galaxy. But that movie cost $170,000,000 to make. Not to mention the millions that went into marketing the film (the great unknown). Surely there’s an easier, cheaper way to bring in the millions?

At the end of the day, at the end of the year, is there a list that means more to the movie business than what the who tops the ROI? Maybe. But I was still curious about the best buys in Hollywood, and what we can learn from, yet again, one more list. Below are the 10 most profitable films of 2014.*

10. The LEGO Movie
Warner Bros.
Budget: $60,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $468,060,692
Profit margin: 780%

9. Heaven is for Real
TriStar
Budget: $12,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $101,332,962
Profit margin: 844%

8. The Maze Runner
Fox
Budget: $34,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $339,422,634
Profit margin: 998%

7. Lucy
Universal
Budget: $40,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $458,863,600
Profit margin: 1,147%

6. The Purge: Anarchy
Universal
Budget: $9,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $110,602,999
Profit margin: 1,229%

5. Neighbors
Universal
Budget: $18,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $268,157,400
Profit margin: 1,490%

4. Ouija
Universal
Budget: $5,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $75,856,010
Profit margin: 1,517%

3. The Fault in our Stars
Fox
Budget: $12,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $304,186,490
Profit margin: 2,535%

2. God’s Not Dead
Freestyle Releasing
Budget: $2,000,000
Worldwide Box Office: $62,630,732
Profit margin: 3,132%

1. Annabelle
Warner Bros.
Budget: $6,500,000
Worldwide Box Office: $252,673,813
Profit margin: 3,887%

What we learned:

1. There are no superheros here (well, Lucy, comes sort of close, I guess). No Hobbits. No mega-franchise endeavors (The Maze Runner is part 1, but not an existing film success). These are just mid-budget, fairly niche films (more on that later).

2. There are no Award Season Darlings either. The truth about Award Season Darlings is that they rarely (though occasionally) turn a major profit for studios. The continued investment in Award Season Darlings by the major studios is one of the easiest, and most important arguments against the notion that Hollywood only cares about the money. Awards matter, too. For whatever reason.

3. Horror movies are cheap and popular. There are three horror films here, and they’re all poorly reviewed. But audiences love a jolt, and providing that jolt is a cheap way to make money.

4. Not everything here is terrible. Yes, those three horror movies are bad. And those two evangelical films are also (likely) terrible. But half of these movies are pretty dang good. 5 of them manage a score of 60 or higher at MetaCritic, and that’s nothing to ignore.

5. There is a real market for evangelical films. Most of these films are niche market movies, but two are directed almost exclusively at the religious film-going public-which is not as niche as it might seem. That trend is not new. It was awoken when Passion of the Christ became the most successful R-rated film in movie history, and it continues today with small films quietly amassing big rewards.

6. The mid-range budget film is not worthless. You hear sometimes that the only interest in Hollywood is in Franchise Entertainment (you’ve heard it from me, more than once). But maybe that’s not entirely true. Spending $5-50 Million on a film can be a wise investment for studios if you know what to spend it on. And while every movie is not going to land, there’s much less risk involved than in spending $250 Million dollars on Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies.

*The % profit numbers were crunched at What Culture.