Mail Tribune- A spinoff of Jim Carrey’s smash hit "Bruce Almighty," the film starred Morgan Freeman, reprising his role as God, and Steve Carell, one of Hollywood’s hottest comedians.
But "Evan Almighty" turned out to be a dud, with an estimated $250 million in production and marketing costs and just $173 million in box office revenue.
The film’s distributor, Universal Studios, is not the only one feeling the pain. So is a hedge fund in Milwaukee, Wis., that put up millions of dollars to help bankroll the movie and more than a dozen others, according to investment bankers. Hedge funds have been a major source of capital for Hollywood studios over the past three years. Drawn by projections of double-digit returns with minimal risk, they pumped $13 billion into 150 major pictures. Typically, they helped finance "slates" consisting of as many as several dozen movies. Now, the glitter is gone. Many of those deals probably will lose money for equity investors, according to investment bankers. The toll could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
