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Congress Passes Movie Futures Trading Ban

By Jason Beahm on July 20, 2010 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Have you ever had a client that wanted to invest in movie futures? It's an idea that's had a lot of appeal to a number of investors. Cantor Fitzgerald's Cantor Exchange and Media Derivatives' Trend Exchange had been working for years to create an online trading for Hollywood films. However it was strongly opposed by the Motion Pictures Association of America and the six major studios it represents. Now the U.S. Senate has put an end to the idea once and for all.

When the U.S. Senate approved financial reform on Thursday with a vote of 60-39, it included a ban on treating the Hollywood box office as a commodity market with a futures market. The legislation, proposed by the Obama administration, will tighten controls on financial markets. The measure was approved by the House of Representatives last month. The legislation comes after calls for action to regulate markets following the 2008 financial crisis.

The bill now heads to the desk of President Obama who is expected to sign it. Bob Pisano, interim head of the MPAA hailed the passage of the legislation: "...I want to thank Congress for approving this measure ... Congress has acted decisively to ban proposed trading in box office futures and to make important reforms in the country's financial regulatory system. We applaud the work the bill's authors have done, and of course, the many Senators and Members who supported the provisions to prevent movie futures trading."

The vote, in effect, kills the efforts by It also signals a huge win for the MPAA (and the six major studios it represents), who claimed that the approval of movie futures trading would severely damage the movie industry.

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