Was John Carpenter rich when he started in film? He has a long history of stunning film work.
No, that's why he hooked up with people like Akkad to produce his films. Back when Hollywood did slightly original stuff that was how people entered the business, a young up and coming director found himself a not so young slightly rich wannabe producer, they put a package together and found a distributor and off you went. I've seen interviews with Akkad seems like a cool guy, kept finding a way to stick Donald Pleasence in the Halloween movies until Donald died, even when Pleasence was getting old and fairly infirmed Akkad said he'd earned a place in any movie Akkad produced that he wanted to be in.