Although last year saw record levels of overseas investment in British film production, with War Horse, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo all filmed here, profits from those blockbuster films are channelled back into the American studios and production companies behind them, like Disney, Warner Brothers and Paramount, and not British film studios, whose running costs and rent are often higher than fees they can command for hire rates.