Box-Office Betting Gets Another Vote of Approval

Less than a week after granting approval for a company called Media Derivatives, Inc., to offer trading of “film futures” tied to the box-office performance of major Hollywood films, government regulators have cleared the way for the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald to join the action. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission today voted in favor of allowing Cantor to open a film futures market, though it stopped short of approving the contracts that participants would buy and sell,which is the final hurdle that stands in the way of the commencement of trading. Amid almost universal opposition to the idea among movie industry heavy-hitters, lawmakers have introduced a bill that would ban the practice entirely. Obviously, box-office betting is an issue that remains far from decided, so you may have to wait a while before wagering your kid’s entire college fund on the MacGruber movie.