Eric Crampton: Economist says taxpayer funded films are a losing game

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Jul 21, 2021 · 4m

Makers of the film about the Christchurch mosque attacks are expecting taxpayers to subsidise the venture.

The director Andrew Nicoll has been looking to cover 40 percent of production costs by way of the film subsidy.

Nothing is confirmed yet, but if the movie does go ahead, it would likely qualify for that.

A question to come out of this is whether taxpayers should fund a movie depicting current politicians?

Eric Crampton, chief economist at the NZ Initiative told Tim Dower more often than not, it’s the filmmakers that end up winning.

“It’s kind of a losing game for taxpayers…