Towards the end of last year the BFI re-published numbers showing how poorly the average British film performs at the box office. Overall only 7% made a profit, and that figure drops to 3.4% when you look at films costing under £500,000. The figure was certainly headline-grabbing, but it wasn’t the whole picture. Firstly, it doesn’t follow that the investors of the 93% of “non-profitable” films lost money. Most UK films under £500,000 are operated via SEIS and EIS schemes which can protect as much as 78% of an investor’s money, meaning that a film can “under perform” at the box office and yet still allow the investor to recoup. And secondly, the box office is only half the picture. …
