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Average first screenplay rates? - Page 2

post #16 of 27
7/11/10 at 7:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty View Post
AB, are you in the Ent business?
Ex MP lit agent; currently in finance. I was having a grand old time in Hollywood until I ran into one continuous string of "wrong place at the wrong time" scenarios in a row, through no fault of my own. Eventually, the critical importance of dumb luck in that business just drove me nuts, and I left to pursue a career where my fate wouldn't constantly depend on almost pure chance. My little brother is a (successful) screenwriter, and he busts his ass for what doesn't actually amount to a great deal of money. That's after having sold four screenplays to Disney and Warners, too.
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post #17 of 27
7/11/10 at 7:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard View Post
Ex MP lit agent ...

Do you know how many pitches you're about to hear?

Has your brother had anything produced?

lefty
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post #18 of 27
7/11/10 at 8:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty View Post
Do you know how many pitches you're about to hear?
He's a sword-wielding gay cowboy with a secret. She's a strong-willed thirtysomething bounty hunter from a family of eight older brothers. They fight crime! http://www.theyfightcrime.org/ ================= I would add that if you're purely a writer, John Scalzi often provides some interesting commentary on the economics of being an author. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/06/3...-as-you-think/
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post #19 of 27
7/11/10 at 8:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim View Post
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.
No, that isn't true at all. If we are assuming that your screenplay is bought by a major or a subsidiary, it is much more than that. The amount of hoops one has to jump before that happens, however, are considerable. It is more likely these days, especially in television, that your script will be optioned. Usually 20k all the way to 100k for a really hot idea with a lot of buzz. Larry David isn't really a great example because he was a producer as well. Most production companies will not pay you much at all, and in fact getting your script to a reader without rep or a reference can be very hard. A lot of the lower level management will accept submissions via email once you've registered it with the WGA. There are some like Gersch for comedy that will accept anyone's shit, or Comedy Central.
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post #20 of 27
7/11/10 at 8:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty View Post
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

Black and that whole Spec script era actually made a lot more than that. His deal for that was something like 250 against 2 million. He made a lot more on Lethal Weapon 2. Obviously his work in the 90s was where he made a lot of his cash.
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post #21 of 27
7/11/10 at 8:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SField View Post
Black and that whole Spec script era actually made a lot more than that. His deal for that was something like 250 against 2 million. He made a lot more on Lethal Weapon 2. Obviously his work in the 90s was where he made a lot of his cash.
The days of mega spec sales are long gone, though. At least for newbies. These days the power has very much shifted against the young writer and toward the studios. If you're lucky, you'll get low six for your first spec out the gate. From there, you'll be lucky to get hired immediately on a rewrite. I've heard that it's common these days to "crowdsource" treatments from established young writers before even hiring one of them to do the rewrite. For example, let's say Warner Brothers has a rewrite gig on a screenplay it's developing. It'll invite maybe 6 writers to write treatments -- unpaid, mind you, and they keep the treatments and all associated IP -- and they pick the winner of that cattle call to employ on the rewrite job. It's a really shitty system, but so long as there are millions of aspiring writers out there, there's no shortage of them willing to whore themselves out like this. I would basically discourage anyone and everyone from trying to be a screenwriter unless they absolutely know they are genius screenwriters (i.e., have written several screenplays and have gotten "holy fucking shit, that's amazing" reactions from people who read screenplays professionally).
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post #22 of 27
7/11/10 at 9:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lefty View Post
Do you know how many pitches you're about to hear?

LOL. People are welcome to try, but I am out of the business and have basically no pull with anyone in it. You would do just as well to pitch your doorman as to pitch me.

Quote:
Has your brother had anything produced?

Yes, but in the interest of his anonymity and my own, I can't disclose what.
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post #23 of 27
7/11/10 at 9:03pm
American Pie dude got like a half million, I think. He grew up in my town.
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post #24 of 27
7/11/10 at 9:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SField View Post
Black and that whole Spec script era actually made a lot more than that. His deal for that was something like 250 against 2 million. He made a lot more on Lethal Weapon 2. Obviously his work in the 90s was where he made a lot of his cash.

I don't want to look it up, but I doubt he was paid 250K against 2M. This was a spec script, albeit one that had Joel Silver championing it. He walked from LW2 after a smaller payment, i believe.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard View Post
LOL. People are welcome to try, but I am out of the business and have basically no pull with anyone in it. You would do just as well to pitch your doorman as to pitch me.

Doormen: conduit to the new HW.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard View Post
Yes, but in the interest of his anonymity and my own, I can't disclose what.

Fair enough.

lefty
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post #25 of 27
7/11/10 at 10:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SField View Post
No, that isn't true at all. If we are assuming that your screenplay is bought by a major or a subsidiary, it is much more than that. The amount of hoops one has to jump before that happens, however, are considerable. It is more likely these days, especially in television, that your script will be optioned. Usually 20k all the way to 100k for a really hot idea with a lot of buzz. Larry David isn't really a great example because he was a producer as well. Most production companies will not pay you much at all, and in fact getting your script to a reader without rep or a reference can be very hard. A lot of the lower level management will accept submissions via email once you've registered it with the WGA. There are some like Gersch for comedy that will accept anyone's shit, or Comedy Central.
I believe he said "average". Selling your first screenplay for $200k is not average. If you take the $200k that you CAN get from say, Paramount - and average it against the $300 you MIGHT get from Comedy Central... how exactly am I incorrect? You went on to agree with me, by the way.
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post #26 of 27
7/11/10 at 11:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim View Post
I believe he said "average". Selling your first screenplay for $200k is not average. If you take the $200k that you CAN get from say, Paramount - and average it against the $300 you MIGHT get from Comedy Central... how exactly am I incorrect?

You went on to agree with me, by the way.

Well comedy central is mainly in the business of tv, so comparing them makes absolutely no sense. Most screen plays sold sell (baring points, producer credits etc...) for around 100k/150 to 200/350 for majors. That is fairly standard even for non WGA. For indies it is much less, but you also get a lot of creative latitude, and your work isn't likely to be torn up by a small think tank of young writers as Bastard describes.

Because of how fickle the industry is now, there's a huge preference for remakes, books etc... so specs aren't terribly common unless they come from a name with representation.

I also wouldn't much recommend becoming a writer unless you're very good. If you cannot get someone to write you a letter within 6 months, or representation inside of a year, I would strongly suggest you only do it as a hobby.
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post #27 of 27
7/12/10 at 12:29am
^ Become a DP instead. Good coin; lots of respect; lengthy career.

lefty
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