If sold, how much can you get for a new movie script?

Question

I'm about to do a final draft on what I think, and have been told, is a good script. It will be legally mine and I know where it will be getting mailed. My question is... how much can I get if I ended up selling it?

Answer 1

Bear in mind many people send scripts to movie production companies all the time.

The same companies also pay for the initial treatment of an idea to be developed into a script. Depending on the size of the company you might get a reasonably good deal to develop a script. But don't get your hopes up, most media companies would probably not prefer to pay you for such a embryonic idea development.

A small company might pay you for a script, but considering the time you'll have spent on it, you'd not see a decent return for this. Probably much less than the minimum wage would require if you were working in a normal job.

So lets say you get a big movie company interested, they might pay you for each day that you work on a script (this could be around a thousand a day). But bear in mind they'd call the shots very often and you'd be expected to change your script at the drop of a hat.

Also bear in mind that big companies have dozens, if not hundreds of scripts on the back burner. Your script might not get made into a movie for years, maybe never at all.

You may strike very lucky, and write a totally original script that is both different and new and you might get a few companies interested, then you're talking top dollar for all your hard work, but you'd have to be very, very, very lucky.

My suggestion would be...write a few short scripts for short films around 15-30 mins long. Copyright them as best you can for where you live. Then contact small local media companies. Offer to sell your script to them for a small amount and a Screenwriters credit. Think around the 5-10 dollars/pounds per page mark (so £$75-300 per script). The cheaper the better really. Once you have a few credits, work your way up the chain, contacting other larger companies and sell similar scripts for a bit more. Once you have about 5-10 credits on short films it'll make your resumé look good. Then contact some larger companies with a full feature film idea. That way you have a proven track record and they'll probably be more interested in your script. If you're lucky enough to be offered something for the scripts (they'll have to credit you), then you're in a good area to ask companies if they'd want you to develop a script from scratch from their own people (or another outside party - maybe even another scriptwriter who's done the same as you).

And the best advice i'm sure anyone and myself can give you is....don't give up, and believe in yourself and your scripts. Just because one company isn't interested doesn't mean your script is awful.

Good luck

Answer 2

It depends if a big studio picks it up, it's around 6 figures in that case. More important is to keep on coming up with ideas and writing.

The money motivates but shouldn't be the goal. Having people bringing your words to life is the goal.

The backstory on how "Little Miss Sunshine" is a good example of someone who persevered for years and years, writing tons of stories that got rejected, took some real life situations from his family and put them into the story, had a brother that proofread his work, and over time made some connections to the point where people with deep pockets agreed to turn it into a movie.

Kirk Douglas bought "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with the intention to star in it in the 60s, then Michael Douglas wound up taking it on, the second high profile project he was involved in, and the movie won an Oscar for long before he was running from crazy women.

You also have studios that buy scripts that never get made. And you wonder why movies are $10 a ticket...

Answer 3

Unless you take it to a company and have them pay for the script and produce it, the script isn't worth anything.

Answer 4

Next to nothing. Write a book and make sure to retain all the movie and TV rights.