For years, movie fans have been able to take a virtual punt on the likelihood that a film will prosper or crash at the box office by gambling make-believe dollars on the Hollywood Stock Exchange, a website owned by the broker Cantor Fitzgerald.

But the clamour for a chance to bet real money has been so great, Cantor says, that it is launching the world’s first trading on “movie box office contracts” for real early next year on a new venture called Cantor Entertainment.