The Scoggins Report: August 2011 Scorecard
The Scoggins Report is a compilation of spec sales and trends in the industry. Archive editions of The Scoggins Report can be found at The Business of Show Institute and on www.thewrap.com. Details on every person, project, and company covered by the Report can also be found at www.ItsontheGrid.com. The Report is reprinted at Scriptmag.com by permission of the authors.
2011 Spec Market Scorecard as of August 19
The expected summer slowdown has finally arrived in the spec market. July ended strong, as we reported in the last Scoggins Report, and August’s numbers already match 2010’s, but the crickets have been chirpping since the beginning of the month. We expect this pace to continue through Labor Day.
Since the fall selling season will kick off in less than two weeks, though, we took a look at the last two year’s fall numbers for clues to what to expect through the end of the year. Here are the highlights:
- Studio Buyers: Last year the studios bought 15 specs between September 1 and December 31. Since Warner Bros. grabbed 7 of those and they’ve already bought 9 scripts this year, it’s probably unlikely we’ll hit that mark this year. 2009’s numbers are achievable: The studios bought 11 specs during the period that year, led by Paramount with 3. Lionsgate has yet to get into the game this year, and Relativity is going to need material to feed its new Chinese production/distribution partnership.
- Other Buyers: Non-studio buyers bought 10 specs in 2010 and 8 specs in 2009. There isn’t much of a pattern in those purchases, so it’s anyone’s guess where we’ll end up this year. There are still a significant number of buyers from 2009 who haven’t bought yet in 2011, though, so we think we’ll hit the over/under.
- Agencies: The top four agencies sold 17 specs during the Fall of 2010 (led by CAA and WME, with 5 each) and 16 during the period in 2009 (led by ICM with 5 and WME with 3). Agencies’ sales are governed by buyers’ appetities, obviously, but chances are good that the top agency (whichever it is) will be in the range of 2010‘s winner (CAA, with 12 spec sales) and 2009’s (CAA again, with 14).
Enjoy the rest of your summer, and have a fantastic Labor Day Weekend.
2011 Overall Spec Numbers (through July 22) 1,2:
1 This grid tallies sales of scripts in the month they originally went out. All other grids in this report are straight tallies of each month’s sales.
2 Feb, Apr and Aug numbers do not include the sale of a script that went out prior to 2011. March numbers do not include two sold scripts that went out prior to 2011.
Spec Sales By Genre (sold/total):
Spec Sales By Buyer - Studios:
Spec Sales By Buyer - Other Buyers:
Each of the following production companies has been attached to at least one spec sale so far this year. Companies in bold have been added since the last scorecard.
21 Laps
Anonymous Content
Aversano Films
After Dark
Appian Way
Alliance Films
Automatik Entertainment
Big Kid Pictures
Berlanti Productions
Chernin Entertainment
Contrafilm
Davis Entertainment
Disruption Entertainment (2)
EMJAG
Escape Artists
IDW
FilmEngine
Furst Films
Genre Films
Hollywood Gang (2)
Ixtlan
Josephson Entertainment
Katsmith Productions
Langley Park (2)
Leverage Management
Linson Entertainment
Marc Platt Productions
Mandeville Films
Matt Tolmach Productions
Michael De Luca Productions
Montecito (2)
Original Film
Panay Films
Pearl Street
Platinum Dunes
Radar Pictures
Silver Pictures
Stuber Pictures
Temple Hill
Top Cow
Wigram Productions
Valhalla
WideAwake
LBI Entertainment (fka The Unnamed Yorn Company)
Spec Sales by Seller - Agencies (sold/total):
1 Includes a script not counted toward the company’s 2011 efficiency rating because it originally went out prior to 2011.
Spec Sales by Seller - Management Companies (sold/total):
1 Includes a script not counted toward the company’s 2011 efficiency rating because it originally went out prior to 2011.
About The Scoggins Report:
The Scoggins Report is a terribly unscientific analysis of the feature film development business based on information assembled from a variety of public and non-public sources. The numbers in the reports are by no means official statistics. Past editions of The Scoggins Report can be found in the archives of The Business of Show Institute (http://bit.ly/2HRZ67) and now have a beautiful new home on www.theWrap.com.
Details on every person, project and company covered by the Report can also be found at www.ItsontheGrid.com, a proud division of The Wrap News, Inc. IOTG is the only place mere mortals can find listings of Hollywood’s active open writing and directing assignments, not to mention comprehensive spec market data; active film development information and credits for released movies going back to 1988.
The IOTG Blog has a new home on the site, by the way: www.ItsontheGrid.com/news It includes daily highlights of recent database updates and individual posts on every spec that hits the market. You’ll find buttons to subscribe to the blog’s feed right where you’d expect them, and you can follow the site’s Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/itsonthegrid.
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