Traders will soon be able to bet on whether a film makes money or ends up a box-office flop after two “movie derivatives” exchanges announced plans to launch this year in the US.

The move is a sign that some in the film business believe the exchange-traded futures markets – better known for soyabean and interest rate derivatives – might offer a new way to help film producers manage financial risks.

Veriana, a private investment group, said it would launch The Trend Exchange – named after the popular traders' dictum “The trend is your friend” – this summer.

Veriana said that it was being advised by “prominent members of the entertainment and financial services industries”, as well as experts from the Chicago futures trading community.

A similar venture, Cantor Exchange, set up by US broker Cantor Fitzgerald, said it expected to receive final approval from the US futures regulator to start trading box office receipts on April 20 – enough time to begin trading on upcoming blockbusters such as Iron Man 2.

Andrew Wing, the chief executive of Cantor Entertainment, said that the new exchange would allow film distributors, producers and exhibitors to “create liquidity and hedge their daily business activities”.

Richard Jaycobs, president of Cantor Exchange, said that the ongoing production and distribution of expensively assembled films had made Hollywood ideally suited for a futures market.

“There's no other industry that I'm aware of that [regularly] introduces two to three new products with an average investment of $100m that will be off the shelf within two to three months,” he said.

“People often have more of an opinion about movies than they do the stocks in their portfolio.”

The Trend Exchange, or TrendEx, based in Arizona, will offer futures contracts based on domestic box- office receipts, once regulatory approval has been granted.

The service is expected later this month.

It will help film producers manage the risk that a film is not produced on schedule or is not produced at all; the risk that the production of the film exceeds its budget; and “release schedule risk”, or the risk that a film is not released on time and is late to market.

Finally, it will also allow producers to manage “revenue risk”, or the risk that the film is a flop.

Trading rules and operations would be “consistent with those of established futures and options exchanges, including post-trade clearing and settlement”, the company said.

TrendEx will use the Minneapolis Grain Exchange to clear and settle trades.

“By offering speculators and hedgers a market-based solution to transfer the considerable financial risks associated with major movie productions, The Trend Exchange will perform the same public service that futures exchanges have been providing to commercial users for nearly two hundred years,” said Robert Swagger, the chief executive.

TrendEx said that by targeting institutional investors, the exchange “elevates the commercial value of its contracts, curbing the speculative nature inherent in products that are primarily retail-focused”.

Ralph Winter, a producer of films such as X-Men, Wolverine and Star Trek, said: “Being a producer in today's marketplace, requires attracting production capital much like the farmers and ranchers did in the last century.”

However, other film executives have expressed scepticism over the viability of “movie futures”, arguing that there are more effective, existing ways to limit risks in the film business.