I made the difference absolutely clear but it would have been better if I gave the Star Wars example immediately instead of messing about on Google.  Let me give it again.

I looked up the production budget for the 1977 Star Wars.  It was $11 million in 1977 dollars.  http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars4.htm  It would be silly to argue that the movie could ever have been made if there were no way to recover that investment.