The 23rd Dinner Event of Münchner Finance Forum took place on 1 March 2016 at the refurbished Donisl next to Marienplatz. The theme of the evening was “Investments in Motion Pictures”.
Hanns Beese, CFO of Constantin Film, presented the impact of changing in-home viewing behavior on producers. The rise of Amazon Prime and Netflix, which now combine more than two thirds of the subscription video on demand market, changes the industry in two directions. First, the pre-selection of the “start screen” reduces the amount of movies relevant to the consumers. Secondly the huge market power will shift the margins of producers significantly towards the digital giants.
The second presentation of the evening was given by Max Wiedemann, founder and managing director of Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion, on “Success Factors of Film Investments”. Together with his schoolmate Quirin Berg, he studied at the Academy of Film and Television in Munich, where they met Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. In 2007 they won the Oscar in the category “Best Foreign Language Film” for “Das Leben der Anderen”, a movie directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and produced by Wiedemann & Berg. Max Wiedemann sees the success of film investments as being a clear pattern in the composition of producer, director and actor. It’s often the same people who are successful. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee of a success, which is why investors should rather diversify their investment.
