When you think about it, $6 million is hardly a budget and Res. Dogs costing $1mil only leads me to think that Tarantino probably knew certain people who let him use their resources for either dirt-cheap or free in return for credit recognition. Some film makers get lucky like that--Tarantino had a lot of connections, even back then. How else would he have been able to dig himself out of the Four Rooms failure, which he made prior to RD, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, etc.?
Shooting Mallrats for $6 mil was hardly a budget when you consider, as the poster above pointed out, that he probably had to pay the mall a pretty penny even though he became popular after Clerks--especially to New Jerseyans who probably hit up that mall in droves to get a glimpse of the shoot? Especially knowing/hearing that Shannen Doherty & Stan Lee were involved (most likely, he had to pay both of them a pretty penny--probably more to Doherty since she was riding the 90210 wave, had a larger part than Lee & she's got a reputation for being quite demanding). Why do you think the production value of Mallrats was so low? After those three major payoffs, along with craft services for his cast & crew, having to pay the rest of the talent & having to rent some equipment,he most likely had less than $1 mil to work with for production/post prod. of the film, itself.
Not to mention, comparing these two films is like comparing apples to oranges since one's action & one's a comedy.
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