I’d like to thank the academy, my mom and my insurance carrier

Fri Mar 16th, 2012 on     Insurance Claims,    

The awards season is over, and trailers for summer blockbusters are beginning to show up in theaters and on television. This is the time of year when moviegoers lay bets on how many explosions they will see during the previews. The closer we are to Memorial Day, the more destructive the movies seem to be.

Every time one of those things goes off, it is hard not to imagine an insurance company risk manager covering his eyes or muttering, “Please please please go as planned!” In fact, when you think about the number of movies and television shows that are filmed in Florida, you wonder how much of Hurricane Andrew’s $16 billion in insured losses went to cover those productions.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that such an expensive undertaking would be covered by insurance. It shouldn’t be a surprise, either, that such a risky venture would be covered. What is a surprise is how many different kinds of insurable risks one movie can have.

The most obvious risks are personal injury and property damage. A love story would cost less than a movie like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” the movie that one insurance professional said was the riskiest of 2011.

In “Dragon Tattoo,” multiple locations meant the possibility of loss during transportation. Action elements — including motorcycles, skateboards and fight scenes — increased the risk of injury. In fact, insurance risk managers advised the filmmakers to stray from the book in some situations that were just too dangerous.

Production delays are another risk category. We must delay that discussion until our next post, though.

Source: Insurance Journal, “Insurance Plays Key Supporting Role in Movies,” Jonathan Schwarzberg, Feb. 23, 2012

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