The Scoggins Report: February 2012 Pitch Scorecard

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

February 2012
Pitch Sales Scorecard

As promised, The Scoggins Report has switched to a weekly publishing schedule so we can cover pitch sales the same way we’ve been tracking the spec market for the past several years. This week’s edition is our first monthly Pitch Sales Scorecard, with year-to-date numbers through February 11 along with year-over-year comparisons and combined spec and pitch sales tallies.

Here are the numbers that leapt out at us from the below grids:

More than twice as many pitch sales were reported last month as in January 2011, continuing the hot pace for spec and pitch sales overall. The year-over-year comparison of combined pitch and spec sale numbers is even more dramatic: Three times as many pitches and specs sold in January 2012 as in 2011.
WME is in a class by itself this year, with half a dozen spec and pitch sales each. To put it another way, the agency’s 12 combined sales account for over 44% of this year’s lit sales activity. Its nearest competitor is CAA, with 1 pitch sale and 2 spec sales so far in 2012.

Overall Pitch Numbers:

Here are overall pitch sales numbers through February 11 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:

Each of the following production companies has been attached to at least one pitch sale so far this year:
1stAveMachine
JC23 Entertainment
LBI Entertainment
Overbrook Entertainment
Original Film
Palermo Productions
Panay Films
Strange Weather Films
Strike Entertainment
Vertigo Entertainment

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 20 agents have been involved with at least one pitch sale in 2012:

Two:
Mike Esola

One:
Billy Hawkins
Bryan Besser
Christopher Smith
Daniel Cohan
Danny Gabai
David Karp
Elia Infascelli-Smith
Emile Gladstone
Ida Ziniti
Mark Ross
Matt Rosen
Rob Herting
Rowena Arguelles
Sarah Self
Valarie Phillips

Pitch Sales by Seller - Management Companies:

No management company has sold both a pitch and a spec yet this year.

The following 9 managers have been involved with at least one pitch sale in 2012:

Two:
Britton Rizzio

One:
Aaron Kaplan
Alex Lerner
Chris Fenton
Jeremy Platt
Michael Lasker
Peter McHugh
Rich Demato
Sean Perrone

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.

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 relevant credits for released movies going back to 1988.

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