Screenwriting : Spec Script Stats: Whose Buying What by Cynthia Garbutt

Worst year for spec selling, 2020. But writers push forward, accept option $, write cheaper indie funded specs that don't get mention in Show Biz Trade papers

I suspect that Dan is right in that most spec script sales will be for indie productions.

Thanks for the link. Eye-opening.

That being said I heard a podcast (on the page) and the guest had just done a 7 figure spec sale.

All but two of the scripts sold had representation.

I saw that on another article as well. Hollywood does not seem to buy specs, they seem to only buy IP. Which makes me really wonder how we can break into the market right now. The traditional way of writing specs until one of them sticks... that doesn't seem to be cutting it anymore.

While Hollywood represents the lion's share of theatrical income, it does not represent the majority of the market which is indie productions. Nobody knows the stats for all those prodcos around the world. Blogs like this obsess with the tiny pinnacle and cause writers to do the same, writers who are still clinging on to the lottery nature of specs sales that took place in the nineties. The studios are having to exploit IP to survive against the deafening noise of competition in the entertainment world, competition that now comes from multiple avenues, particularly gaming. Trying to sell a new concept to a mainstream audience just isn't efficient.

Specs sell in the indie world and they kickstart careers. There are writers here doing it and I'm seeing it happen on Script Revolution. I know of writers doing very well selling multiple specs per year for the TV movie prodcos. You don't see it covered much because it isn't considered glamourous. Most screenwriters aren't in this to gradually go through the pain of building a career, they are in it to get that lottery win sale and there's a cottage industry catering to that delusion.

Here's spec screenplay & career advice by a TV writer-producer with skin in the Hollywood game...

" As an outsider, the #1 goal is to just get read. And I think a script gets passed around & read in Hollywood not when it's good, or even when it's pretty great, but when people in the industry think that script will advance their own careers. When it comes to be seen as currency."

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1361051529977815045.html

Great information, thank you so much for posting!

Just my opinion: Forget about the unattainable Hollywood fantasy/dream and concentrate on the indie filmmaker world.

I believe we keep looking back to a previous time when the fashion in Hollywood was to buy specs. They paid big money for new talent. Those days are gone. They may return. But the spec indie market and the big studio market are different segments with a small amount of overlap.

Thanks-a-lot for sharing that article, Dan MaxXx, his points were all very insightful, and well-worth strongly taking into consideration.

Craig, what you say is true. Back in the 'good' old days of the '60s, '70s and early '80s when there were only handful of us 'spec' screenplay writers, we could option a few scripts in the low 5 figure range and occasionally sell a script for low 6 against mid 6 figure. Yes those days are long gone. Now we have zillions of minnows in the pool chomping at crumbs. I don't see those days returning anytime but I have faith and confidence in the emerging independent filmmaker sector. We'll see, won't we?

Doug Nelson once they start smacking into a run of failures based on currently think it will change to what I do not know. In my life time, unsure.

Interesting break down. It's sad to see such statistics but I'm hopeful things will turn around as people become starved for entertainment and tired of the same stories (Star Wars, Marvel etc.). Let's not give up - it would be tragic to give up when an opportunity is right around the corner.

I concur with Doug and CJ - specs sell in the indie world.

Great article--thank you for sharing!

I'm an indie, myself. That's my life ethos. I posted this so that writers will get the picture and decide where they want their energy directed in getting their name, buzzed. And some of what they've written, read.

Great article but I agree with Barry. By the time you write something for the "hot" market, the market will have changed. If you follow the trends, you will always be behind the curve. I write whatever idea I'm feeling and have a portfolio of different scripts. I let the market catch up to me.