Average first screenplay rates?

Are they buying it to archive, or are they buying it to produce?

Not much, unless you got lucky and have an artist or director backing your project. If that's the case, you might be in the tens of thousands range. Couple thousand, if the person who buys it thinks it will someday be a movie. few hundred if he's not so sure.

I don't know if averages would mean anything, if you could find them.

Writers Guild minimums might mean something.

you can find them here.

First time or amateur writers aren't usually guild members.

True, but they do give a sense of industry standards.

Well, Shane Black sold Lethal Weapon for 250K in the mid-'80s. It was his first or second script.

Have you written a Lethal Weapon?

lefty

Sort of. Basically unless your screenplay is head and shoulders above anything else out there, and it's read by exactly the right people, and someone famous j/o to it... you aren't getting paid shit for your first time screenplay. Even if you are Hemingway. Guild members are established, and hired because they are a known quantity, and paid based on that scale. They are usually working in television, or doing re-writes of scripts that some studio bought for $300 from some starving genius somewhere.

This is easy.

$0.

Low six figures. After tax + after-agent take-home is usually $50-80k off a $100-$150k sale. Are you thinking of becoming a screenwriter? Because if so, know that: a) Your first script isn't going to get sold. b) Your first script will, at best, get you an agent. c) Your agent will try to find you some work doing studio rewrites of existing scripts. d) You pay your dues doing that for awhile, and eventually, you can write original scripts to sell. e) 90% of all scripts you manage to sell at that point will just get bought by a studio and probably never made into real movies. People have this common misconception that they're going to break into the movie business with their first attempt at bat. It works that way in maybe 0.000000001% of all cases. I'm not saying this to be harsh, but to force you to consider how tough the game is before thinking of playing it.

Every "I quit my day job to become a screenplay writer" story always has the same sad and exceedingly obvious and warned about ending.

All bets are off if you have a good spec script and you can sell it for whatever the market will bear (probably low six as AB says) but you need to be smart, savvy, talented, dogged and seriously lucky. Mostly the last two.

Here are some unofficial stats on odds of selling a script:

"¢ 436 spec scripts came out in 2009, of which 72 sold (17%).

"¢ 373 specs went out wide in 2009, of which 19 sold (5%). Of those 19, only 3 sold after April 30th, out of 178 attempts during the period (1.7%).

"¢ As for spec sales by genre, comedies led with 32% of sales, thrillers 29%, action adventures 21%, while dramas and sci-fi/fantasies tied with 10%.

"¢ Universal and Warner Bros bought the most specs among the major buyers (6 each). But Warner Bros bought only 1 spec script in the second half of the year. Paramount & Sony tied with 5 each not counting ony's Screen Gems which bought another 3. DreamWorks had 4. 20th Century Fox had 3, but adding all its three banners, Fox bought 6 specs. Lionsgate purchased 3. New Line didn't buy any specs in 2009.

You're better off making the movie yourself.

For an interesting take on the writer's life read Mike Le's Don't Forget to Validate Your Parking comic.

lefty

There is a lot of truth to this, actually. If you've got a script that is conceivably shootable with a low budget and without a lot of fancy special effects, try filming it yourself. There is no shortage of actors out there willing to put in an honest month's work on an indie film -- especially at film schools, or in LA in general. If you've got a comedy, try befriending and approaching the folks at local improv groups (Groundlings, Second City, etc.). It's becoming increasingly common for young filmmakers to get discovered on the festival circuit with their self-made and self-distributed movies. Most of those movies are utter crap, but the ones that get selected for legitimate festivals are usually going to get noticed. Self-producing is how folks like Kevin Smith, the South Park guys, Seth McFarlane (Family Guy), and a bunch of other young talents got their start. It doesn't have the stigma that it used to; in fact, these days, it's actually considered a badge of honor. This is the riskiest, but arguably fastest way to the top as a writer. Because as a writer/director, you can make a name for yourself. As only a writer, you'll have to play a very long, slow game to claw your way to the top (and that's if you get traction in the first place). Alternatively, consider life as a TV writer. TV writing is much harder than film writing, because you've got to be able to write within very strict structural guidelines (commercial break timing, cameras, and so forth). Sitcom writing, in particular, is widely considered to be the hardest form of screenwriting to pull off well. It may not seem like it, but sitcom writing is about as tough as it gets, as far as the writer's craft is concerned. But if you manage to break into TV writing, you can count on a much steadier paycheck than with movie writing. If you're staffed on a show, you've basically got a day job, but as a writer. Put in four or five years doing it, and eventually you can get staffed at the producer or executive producer level. Then you've got a steady job with big money. If you eventually create and sell your own show, and it gets picked up, you're in the big time. If it becomes successful (an extreme rarity, however), you can make absolute shitloads. Larry David made well north of $600 million off of Seinfeld. Granted, there is one Larry David for every 1 million struggling TV writers. But if you make it to the top, you make it pretty fucking big.

Staff writers - even at the lowly levels - make a very good living, but it can be a grind and you have to be very good. And likeable.

AB, are you in the Ent business?

lefty

The article fails for not mentioning a McKee seminar.

Celtx is still free for you budding Goldmans.

lefty