Studios had from Monday to Friday to make a decision. So, a new policy took effect when selling a screenplay. From week to week, the answer to 'How much do screenwriters make' kept increasing. That's why screenwriter salaries ballooned. Selling a screenplay had never been easier. There was also such a demand for content, screenwriting agents (and writers) found themselves in rare positions of power. That’ll help us understand the best practices and techniques you need for selling a screenplay.Īfter the 1988 Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, there was a flood of spec scripts (scripts written on speculation) because professional script writers had 155 days off of work. Before we get into more methods on how to sell a script, we have to take a look at how the market got to where it is. Learning how to sell your screenplay is complicated. Here's writer Corey Mandell on the current state of the screenplay marketplace. Then we get to television and syndication, and the question of “How much do screenwriters make?” snowballs. Look, there’s a clear history of a screenwriter salary hitting that seven-figure mark. So, when you break it all down, how much do screenplays sell for? Those are standout examples and a vast majority of scripts don't actually sell for that much, even in today's dollars. Then, 20 years later, Adam McKay and Will Ferrell split a $4 million check for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. In 1994, Black was back, this time selling his script for The Long Kiss Goodnight for an unprecedented $4 million lump. Only two months after Black's record sale of Boy Scout, Joe Eszterhas laughed all the way to the bank by selling Basic Instinctfor $4 million, with $1 million of that going to producer Irwin Winkler. He had previously sold his script for Lethal Weapon for $250,000 in 1984. Shane Black got nearly $2 million for his script for The Last Boy Scoutin 1990, setting a high-dollar record in the process.

Screenplay for sale