Batutta
Major Contributor
Very thorough analysis of the average return on investment of independent films. Not surprisingly, it paints a not very rosy picture. The median ROI for an independently financed movie is -13.12%. The paper does come to some surprising conclusions though. The highest performers over the long term are documentaries and G rated films, followed distantly by horror films. This is in the context of looking at an investment portfolio.
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/cons/groups/content/documents/webasset/uat_024304.pdf
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/cons/groups/content/documents/webasset/uat_024304.pdf