TORONTO ? Films that take an outsider?s view of business are routine at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2010, for instance, financial corruption was in vogue, as ?Inside Job,? ?Client 9,? and ?Casino Jack? all exposed the seamy underside of Wall Street and the lobbying business.
But at least one picture turned the tables this year, by taking a businesslike look at an outsiders? world: street drugs.
In fact, ?How to Make Money Selling Drugs, ? a documentary directed by Matthew Cooke and produced by Bert Marcus and Adrian Grenier, pushed the boundaries of alternative economics by examining those who sell drugs and those who prosecute the dealers as parts of the same business.
And a big business it is.
The film pegs the annual income of an accomplished domestic drug importer ? a notch or two below those who operate international cartels ? at $100 million a year or more. It puts what it terms yearly revenue for the related prison industry at $50 billion ? about five times the annual movie box-office sales in the United States and Canada. ?This was born out of an economics class,? said Mr. Cooke, who spoke outside a screening Sunday. During a summer session at Harvard, he explained, a professor analyzed the war on drugs as an instance of huge business failure, not unlike the airline and auto industries of a few years ago. Some years later, Mr. Cooke connected with Mr. Marcus, a former radio producer who now makes movies through his own production company and film finance fund. With Mr. Grenier, the actor best known for ?Entourage,? they decided to spin the professor?s notion into something of their own.
?How to Make Money Selling Drugs? starts at the bottom, giving professional advice to, and assessing the prospects of, street-level dealers who, by Mr. Cooke?s reckoning, make minimum wage or less when they enter the business. But some quickly climb the ladder, organizing customer networks, supply chains, security apparatus and financial controls.
Prison is described as a cross between business school, where you get an education in market dynamics, and a giant job fair, where prospects are recruited for positions on the outside. Property forfeitures are examined as a financing mechanism for law enforcement. At the retail level, customer service is said to be paramount.
?Treat them like regular people,? advises one former dealer who is interviewed in the film. He appears with stars like Susan Sarandon and Woody Harrelson, who oppose what they view as overly stringent drug laws, and famous drug figures like Freeway Rick Ross, who went to prison after building a robust cocaine trade in Los Angeles.
The film finds plenty of profit in the drug war. Yet fighting drugs is failing as an industry, the movie argues, because it requires a growing taxpayer subsidy, year after year.
As for the movie business, Mr. Marcus said he is weighing offers for distribution rights to the film, which is being represented by ICM Partners. It may be in commercial theaters this year, he said.
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