Unfortunately, too many movies are made by throwing money at problems rather than by increasing efficiency. Efficiency begins with you and your executives. Which type of executive will you continue to be?

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Question: I would like to write screenplays for a living but I don’t understand the proper format, or what to do to get an agent and/or get it sold?

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Sometimes the best places to invest money yesterday become the worst places to invest tomorrow. People and institutions change, things get over-regulated, the same policies are always applied ad nausium . . . good management teams leave, morale declines, idiots come on board. There are a million things that can make a once-lofty institution a liability to society. All the while the law of universal entropy requires that new organizing energy, new intelligence, is always applied to any institution, government or company in order to get or stay big. But big is not necessarily better, all that glitters is not necessarily gold and you may wish to keep up with the Jones’. You have heard all these sayings and may consider some of the them true at times. Well let’s apply them to some standard investment vehicles we have known for many years:

Trusts administered by corporate fiduciaries
U.S. treasury bonds, notes and T-bills
The MPAA studio/distributors

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A movie is the best investment one can make for the up-side potential vs. the risk. They’re better than real estate, blue chip stocks, gold, silver, precious stones, income-producing rental properties, futures, treasuries, international currencies . . . better than anything, with the possible exception of investing in your own education and spiritual enlightenment.

There simply is no business with manufacturing capital entry requirements as low as motion pictures where the potential return can be as unlimited over the short, medium and long terms. For instance, a movie such as HALLOWEEN, costing as little as $320,000 to produce, earned $75,000,000 and it does not stop earning money - for a lifetime. RETURN OF THE SECACUS 7 cost only $60,000 and grossed $2,500,000. BENJI cost $550,000 and grossed $45,000,000; NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD cost $114,000 and grossed $40,000,000, GRIZZLY cost $700,000 and grossed $31,000,000, DAWN OF THE DEAD cost $700,000 and grossed $55,000,000 and BLAIR WITCH PROJECT costs $5,000 and grossed over $150,000,000. And just when we thought nothing could top BLAIR WITCH, along comes MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING which was produced for about $1.5 million as an independent film (turned down by all the studios for financing I might add) and it has so far generated over $200,000,000 and it hasn’t even hit home video or foreign yet. There are thousands of other examples where the return was at least three times anything done by securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ.

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