Every few years, the film business convinces itself it has found a formula, which usually just means copying the last thing that worked for someone else. This season, it’s low-budget horror again.

This paper draws on MEP Capital's direct experience underwriting, acquiring, and lending against film and television libraries as well as the analytical frameworks developed by third-party valuation experts we work with. It is intended for investors and allocators as a framework: how to think about film library cash flows, how they decay, how they differ from music royalties (the more familiar benchmark), and what a lender must prepare for before committing capital.