The Scoggins Report: April 2012 Pitch Sales Scorecard

The Scoggins Report is a compilation of sales and trends in the industry. Archive editions can be found at The Business of Show Institute and on www.thewrap.com. Details on every…

The Scoggins Report is a compilation of sales and trends in the industry. Archive editions 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.

The Scoggins Report

by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan

April 9, 2012

April 2012

Pitch Sales Scorecard

Since April has barely started, we’ll restrict our pithy commentary to the first quarter’s pitch sale numbers. In fact, we’ll keep it to one line: The pace of pitch sales picked up quite a bit in the past month, and we’re now basically on par year over year (23 this year vs 25 in 2011).

Okay, two lines: April 2012’s pitch sales are off to such a good start we should be up over 2011 by the end of the month. Here are our favorite highlights since the last Scorecard:

  • Columbia Pictures kept its spending spree going throughout the last four weeks. The studio is already ahead of last year’s pace, when it bought five pitches March through June. Its six pitches in 2012 is two thirds of its 2011 total.
  • If we were setting pitch meetings, Universal would be high on our target list. The studio has bought one pitch a month so far this year, and if it follows last year’s pattern (9 pitch purchases between February and July), it’s good for another four or five between now and the 4th of July.
  • Disney is potentially another target rich environment. The Mouse bought a pitch a month last year from February through August, but has only picked up one so far this year.

Enjoy the grids. All of April’s numbers are through the 7th.

Overall Pitch Numbers:

Here are overall pitch sales numbers through April 7 on their own...

...and here are combined spec and pitch sales numbers for the same period.

Pitch Sales By Genre:

Pitch Sales By Buyer - Studios:

Here are the combined pitch and spec purchase numbers for studios that have bought at least one of each:

Pitch Sales By Buyer - Other Buyers:

Here are the combined pitch and spec purchase numbers for other buyers that have bought at least one of each:

Each of the following production companies has been attached to at least one pitch sale so far this year. Companies in bold are new since the last scorecard.

1stAveMachine

Bluegrass Films

Captivate Entertainment

Di Novi Pictures

Disruption Entertainment

Grady Twins Productions

Hartbeat Productions

JC23 Entertainment

Katzsmith Productions

LBI Entertainment

Overbrook Entertainment

Original Film

Palermo Productions

Panay Films

Point Grey Pictures

Roth Films (2)

Ryan Murphy Productions

Strange Weather Films

Vertigo Entertainment

Viking Funeral

The Walsh Co.

Pitch Sales by Seller - Agencies:

Here are the combined pitch and spec sales numbers for agencies that have sold at least one of each:

The following 34 agents have been involved with at least one pitch sale in 2012. People in bold are new or sold an additional pitch since the last scorecard.

Two:

Danny Gabai (WME)

David Karp (WME)

Ida Ziniti (Paradigm)

Jason Burns (UTA)

Matt Rosen (CAA)

Mike Esola (WME)

Rowena Arguelles (CAA)

One:

Billy Hawkins (CAA)

Blake Fronstin (WME)

Brett Loncar (CAA)

Brian Kend (CAA)

Bryan Besser (Verve)

Christopher Smith (Paradigm)

Dan Erlij (UTA)

David Kramer (UTA)

Elia Infascelli-Smith (WME)

Emile Gladstone (ICM)

Geoff Morely (UTA)

Jay Baker (CAA)

Jay Mandel (WME)

Jon Levin (CAA)

Julien Thuan (UTA)

Kevin Huvane (CAA)

Mark Ross (Paradigm)

Nicole Clemens (ICM)

Rebecca Ewing (UTA)

Rob Herting (Verve)

Robert Lazar (ICM)

Sarah Self (WME)

Scott Greenberg (CAA)

Sharon Jackson (WME)

Todd Hoffman (ICM)

Trevor Astbury (Paradigm)

Valarie Phillips (Paradigm)

Pitch Sales by Seller - Management Companies:

Here are the combined pitch and spec sales for management companies that have sold at least one of each in 2012.

The following 20 managers have been involved with at least one pitch sale in 2012. People in bold are new or sold an additional pitch since the last scorecard.

Three:

Britton Rizzio (Circle)

Two:

Brooklyn Weaver (Energy)

Guymon Casady (Mgmt 360)

One:

Aaron Kaplan (K/P)

Alex Lerner (K/P)

Bob Sobhani (Magnet)

Darin Friedman (Mgmt 360)

David Milner (3 Arts)

E. Brian Dobbins (PYE)

Gregory Shephard (Circle)

Jennie Frisbie (Magnet)

Jeremy Platt (Generate)

Jill McElroy (Mgmt360)

Larry Kennar

Michael Lasker (Mosaic)

Paul Young (PYE)

Peter McHugh (Gotham)

Rich Demato

Sean Perrone (K/P)

Zach Tann (Magnet)

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. Caveat emptor. Mol??n labé.

Top screenwriting and film publication, founded in 1989, published by Active Interest Media. Twitter: @scriptmag