2017 Spec Script Sales Analysis: Buyers
Yesterday we looked at 2017 spec script deals by genre. Today we break down the numbers per major studios, mini-majors, subsidiaries…
Yesterday we looked at 2017 spec script deals by genre. Today we break down the numbers per major studios, mini-majors, subsidiaries, production companies, and financiers to see which were the most and least active in the script acquisition market. The totals:
5
20th Century Fox
4
Sony
3
Amazon Studios
Fox Searchlight
Paramount
Universal
2
Netflix
Pascal Pictures
Voltage Pictures
Warner Bros.
1
Amasia Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment
Assemble Media
Black Bear Pictures
Chris Morgan Productions
Cristal Pictures
The Donners Company
DreamWorks Studios
Echo Lake Productions
eONe
Good Universe
Greymatter Productions
Hyde Park Entertainment
Imagination Worldwide
Imperative Entertainment
Lakeshore Entertainment
Lionsgate
Marlowe Pictures
MGM
Miramax Films
Motion Picture Capital
New Line
New Regency
New Republic Pictures
Number 9 Films
Oceanside Media
Original Films
Outside the Box Film Partners
Pandemonium Entertainment
Paramount Players
Paulist Productions
Prime Universe Productions
QC Entertainment
Route One Entertainment
Screen Gems
Sentient Entertainment
Stay Gold Features
STX Entertainment
Vocab Films
Will Packer Productions
Look at these numbers from the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 per each major studio:
20th Century Fox 5 / 3 / 1 / 7 / 3 / 3 / 8 / 4 / 8 / 5
Disney 5 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 2 / 0 / 2 / 3 / 0 / 0
Paramount 1 / 5 / 4 / 4 / 12 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 4 / 3
Sony Pictures 8 / 4 / 1 / 7 / 9 / 3 / 10 / 2 / 2 / 4
Universal 6 / 6 / 1 / 6 / 9 / 6 / 4 / 6 / 2 / 3
Warner Bros. 8 / 8 / 8 / 15 / 7 / 4 / 2 / 4 / 0 / 2
With the exception of 20th Century Fox, the major studios have scaled back on acquiring spec scripts, more or less: More (Disney, Warner Bros.), Less (Paramount, Sony, Universal). And now that Disney has acquired a substantial portion of 21st Century Fox assets to the tune of $52.4 billion, the most active player in the spec market the last four years may be grounded.
It’s actually even worse because if you add the 3 spec projects Fox Searchlight acquired in 2017 to the 5 acquisitions by 20th Century Fox, those 8 scripts represent 13% of the overall spec deals last year.
Will Disney allow Fox and Fox Searchlight creative autonomy, at least for the foreseeable future, or will they squash any activity in the spec marketplace in lieu of projects involving storylines from preexisting franchises arising from Lucas Film, Marvel, Pixar, and as well as Fox series such as Alien, Spider-Man and the like?
Other numbers: There were 16 spec deals per the majors proper. Add 2 more (Fox Searchlight). 1 for MGM, 1 DreamWorks, 1 Lionsgate. And I suppose we need to usher in the Amazon (3) and Netflix (2) era. That brings us to a total 26 by the majors and mini-majors. That comes out 43%, up from 2016 (38%), while down considerably from 2015 (55%) and 2014 (56%).
What do you take away from this information?
Tomorrow: Agents and managers.