by Jacob Goldstein

Here's a summer thriller starring Stringer Bell, young Anakin Skywalker and Dallas Winston. How much money will it make in its first month at the box office?

Traders will be allowed to bet on that question, federal regulators said yesterday. It's the first movie that's been approved for futures trading.

Two companies have been working for a while now to set up box-office futures exchanges, as we noted earlier this year. They argue that the exchanges could allow people and companies in the movie business to hedge their risks against box office failure.

But, not surprisingly, the movie business doesn't like the idea of people betting on how a movie's going to do at the box office.

 

The futures exchanges "serve no public interest and, to the contrary, can significantly harm the motion picture industry," the interim head of the Motion Picture Association of America said in a statement yesterday.

The industry has gone over the head of the regulators, to lobby Congress. It seems to be working: The finance-reform bill passed by the Senate would ban box-office exchanges.

And, as Felix Salmon notes, that ban will probably be included in the final finance-reform bill that Congress is likely to pass in the next few weeks.

For more, listen to the piece on today's Morning Edition.