The thrill (and terror) of investing in film

The great British film director John Boorman once penned a memoir entitled ‘Money Into Light’, and in those three words is captured both the thrill of investing in film, and the terror. Even a modest motion picture costs a fortune to produce, and all that money has been turned into nothing more (or less) than the play of light and shadow across a silver screen. Despite the many risks, though, the film business offers the well-informed investor uncorrelated exposure to a cash-generative industry that has shown sustained resilience across multiple economic cycles because it is based on ...