WHEN I was six, Bugs Bunny ruined my childhood, writes Jeffrey Ball, assistant director at Brewin Dolphin.

My first ever trip to the cinema was in 1990 to a classic single screen ‘picture house’ where the Sunday matinee showing was Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

As John Williams' iconic score faded over the end credits, Bugs bounced on the screen to tell us that lightsabers were available in the foyer! My cousin Pete and I dashed outside, not realising the film reel was seven years out of date and the merchandise stand was now dusty and empty. No lightsabers, only tears of disappointment.

Despite this trauma, I've retained a love for big blockbuster movies and I intend to see Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, the latest big movie trying to ‘Hulk Smash’ some more box office records.

There is some serious money to be made if you do break them. Box office estimates for the new Star Wars film, the Force Awakens, out in December are approaching two billion dollars. Backing the right wizard/caped crusader/Jedi can therefore be extremely lucrative.

Both Marvel and Star Wars are now owned by the Walt Disney Company and represent a large chunk of revenue to the House of Mouse. Alongside an ever improving US market, its share price has gained over 50 per cent in sterling terms in the last year.

When the new Star Wars trailer was released two weeks ago, the force of enthusiasm it awakened prompted an immediate jump in its share price, rapidly climbing 1 per cent to an intraday high before the frenzy calmed and it closed only modestly higher. 1 per cent may not seem like much but considering Disney has a market capitalisation of $183bn, the $4bn they spent buying the rights to Star Wars in 2012 looks like a sensible move.

However, shareholders in the likes of Disney are not getting just the movie side of things. Merchandise (those lightsabers again), theme parks, TV shows, sports channels and other diversifying revenue streams are all reasons these kind of companies are potentially attractive investments.

But what if you want something closer to the movie making process? Well, then you could invest in a film studio, like Pinewood. Based outside London, Pinewood Studios has most recently seen Daniel Craig filming Spectre on the appropriately named 007 sound stage and listed on the AIM market in 2012. Certain tax breaks for filming here have seen more and more US productions use the UK’s facilities and locations.

Or what about tapping into the act of actually going to watch a movie? Despite falling attendances there is money to be made in cinema chains like Cineworld, especially with 3D movies giving it a reason to tag another couple of pounds on the price of a ticket in recent years.

When it released full year results last month, Cineworld reported pretax profits of £67.3m after having successfully combining with Cinema City to create the Europe’s second largest cinema chain in Europe, only behind the unlisted Odeon UCI.

For the purist, sadly bar occasional exceptions, independent films are not where money is to be made. The fact the Cineworld chief executive name checked the fourth Hunger Games, Spectre and of course Star Wars as reasons to be optimistic over the next twelve months was telling. Investing in film noir does not always mean you will end up in the black.

THE opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily the views held throughout Brewin Dolphin Ltd. No Director, representative or employee of Brewin Dolphin Ltd accepts liability for any direct or consequential loss arising from the use of this document or its contents. Any tax allowances or thresholds mentioned are based on personal circumstances and current legislation which is subject to change.