Outsmarting the Scam Artists: How to Protect Yourself From the Most Clever Cons by Shadel D

Outsmarting the Scam Artists: How to Protect Yourself From the Most Clever Cons by Shadel D

Author:Shadel, D. [Shadel, D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business
ISBN: 9781118173640
Google: 0zfUnQEACAAJ
Amazon: 1118173643
Barnesnoble: 1118173643
Goodreads: 16473442
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-01-30T06:40:55+00:00


The Drive

Promising such high returns on movie investments was plausible, according to Bill, because everyone knows there is so much money to be made in the entertainment business.

Bill: I would always talk about whatever movie had just come out and how much money it made. “Did you see the new Brad Pitt movie? It opened at $125 million. How would you like to have a piece of that?” And then I would go into how that movie probably cost $70 to $80 million to make and they made $125 million in one weekend. Then I would tell the investor that all we are trying to do is make a movie for $3 to $4 million—we can’t lose.

Allan said this is exactly what the salesman told him. “He pointed out that even in a recession, people still go to the movies, which is why the entertainment business is such a sure thing. And I remembered reading about big movies making $300 million dollars all the time and I thought, ‘Well maybe I will get a million of that or something.’”

As part of the pitch, the salesmen sent Allan a packet that had a copy of the script. He liked it. “After I read the script, I said, ‘You know, that’s not a bad script. You put that in the hands of some good actors, it could work.’”

And since the salesman told Allan they had one of Allan’s favorite actors lined up, it seemed like a sure thing. So they convinced Allan to give them $125,000 and they actually produced the movie and even sent him a special executive producer copy that he showed to his friends.

Bill said a key part of his pitch was promising investors that they could attend Hollywood premieres. “A lot of these investors live in the Midwest or in small towns and have never been to Hollywood,” he said. “They have been very successful financially, but life has become kind of boring. So I would get them all excited by asking them, ‘Have you ever been to a Hollywood premiere? You haven’t? We have premieres for all our movies and all the stars come out.’”



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