Cinema industry figures note Dark Horse’s budget dwarfs recent blockbuster Brazilian productions, such as The Secret Agent, which was nominated for four Oscars this year and cost about R$27mn ($5.4mn).

Castillo is serving an 11-year prison sentence after attempting to close Congress and rule by decree in 2022, just over a year into his term.

“If you look at the past couple of years, it seems like we’ve had a lot of once-in-a-lifetime events,” said Marc Zimmerlin, partner at Oliver Wyman and one of the report’s authors. “Obviously that’s not part of anybody’s business planning.”

“For most participants the situation was a surprise,”