I researched how much Pay it Forward grossed domestically and it didn't do too bad. Pay it Forward was ranked # 77 in 2000 out of about 300 movies, and grossed about $35 million.

Perhaps that's a good goal to have for a movie, rank in the top 100 for year, and make back the amount of money you spent on the movie and have some profit. I don't think that Pay it Forward had a big budget for production, but probably had a large budget for the movie star salary. Helen Hunt was commanding $ 1 million per episode for Mad about You. Heaven only knows that Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment are commanding for salaries.