The Scoggins Report: February 2013 Spec Market Scorecard
The Scoggins Report
by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan
February 18, 2013
February 2013 Spec Market Scorecard
Longtime readers of the Scoggins Report know we accentuate the positive whenever we can. That’s been easy over the last couple of years as the spec market got hot, but there’s no getting around the fact that this year’s spec market is off to its slowest start since 2010, as you’ll see below in our first Spec Market Scorecard of the year.
Interestingly, the percentage of sales of new scripts is on par with the last two years’ average (roughly 35%). We take that to suggest that at least some of the problem stems from the fact that 40% fewer new screenplays have gone to market so far than by this point in each of the last two years. In 2011 and 2012, agents and managers took out 44 and 46 scripts, respectively, through mid-February. By contrast, just 28 scripts have gone to market so far this year.
There are some silver linings, as you’ll see from the below grids. Only three studios have bought specs so far this year, which means there’s plenty of business still ahead. And Lionsgate has already picked up two (half of the number the bought in 2012), both from Paradigm, which leads the agency scoreboard.
So stay tuned. And enjoy the graphs and grids.
2013 Overall Numbers
Of 2013‘s 11 spec sales, 2 were of scripts that originally went out prior to 2012. Here are the spec market numbers through February 15...
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | |
New Specs | 19 | 9 | 28 | ||||||||||
Spec Sales | 7 | 4 | 11 | ||||||||||
2012 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 5 | 13 | 9 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 132 |
2011 * | 3 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 8 | 10 | 132 |
2010 * | 1 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 65 |
2009 | 3 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 72 |
* For 2010 and 2011, sales of scripts that originally went to market in years prior are not distributed monthly in the above table but have been added to the year-end totals.
...and here are the monthly spec sales numbers in graph form.
The following are combined total spec and pitch sales numbers through February 15, with year over year monthly comparisons...
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total | 2012 | 2011 | |
Specs | 7 | 4 | 11 | 132 | 132 | ||||||||||
Pitches | 3 | 8 | 11 | 81 | 106 | ||||||||||
Totals | 10 | 12 | 22 | 213 | 238 | ||||||||||
2012 Total | 20 | 20 | 22 | 26 | 16 | 22 | 13 | 16 | 13 | 19 | 10 | 15 | |||
2011 Total | 7 | 21 | 28 | 16 | 15 | 28 | 20 | 9 | 12 | 30 | 16 | 24 |
...and here are those combined spec and pitch sales numbers in graph form as well.
Spec Sales By Genre (sold/total)
J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | Total | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | |
Action/Adventure | 2 | 2 | 4 | 29 | 20 | 16 | 15 | ||||||||||
Comedy | 0 | 28 | 28 | 17 | 23 | ||||||||||||
Drama | 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 14 | 7 | 7 | ||||||||||
Fantasy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||||||||||||
Horror | 1 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
Sci-fi | 1 | 1 | 15 | 15 | 5 | 7 | |||||||||||
Thriller | 2 | 1 | 3 | 36 | 37 | 17 | 21 |
Spec Sales By Buyer - Studios
J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | Total | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | |
Columbia | 0 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||||
Disney | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
Fox | 0 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||||
Lionsgate | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
MGM | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||||||||
Paramount | 0 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 5 | ||||||||||||
Universal | 0 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||||
Warner Bros. | 0 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 6 | ||||||||||||
Totals | 2 | 2 | 4 | 47 | 43 | 21 | 31 |
Here are the combined pitch and spec purchase numbers for the major Studio Buyers so far in 2013:
Pitches | Specs | Total | 2012 | 2011 | |
Columbia | 0 | 16 | 16 | ||
Disney | 1 | 1 | 12 | 11 | |
Fox | 1 | 1 | 12 | 16 | |
Paramount | 0 | 20 | 17 | ||
Universal | 2 | 2 | 20 | 19 | |
Warner Bros. | 1 | 1 | 18 | 30 |
Spec Sales By Buyer - Other Buyers
J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | Total | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | |
Incognito | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
QED | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
Sentinel | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
Skydance | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
Sollipsist | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
Vendome | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |||||||||||
Working Title | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
Totals | 5 | 2 | 7 |
No non-studio buyers have bought both a spec and a pitch yet in 2013.
Each of the following production companies has been attached to at least one spec sale so far this year.
Allison Shearmur Productions
Anonymous Content
Broken Road
Crave Films
Electric Entertainment
Industry Entertainment
Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Le Grisbi Productions
Sean Daniel Company
Spec Sales by Seller - Agencies
J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | Total | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | |
CAA | 1 | 1 | 16 | 26 | 11 | 14 | |||||||||||
ICM | 1 | 1 | 8 | 13 | 4 | 10 | |||||||||||
Original Artists | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||
Paradigm | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 1 | ||||||||||
UTA | 2 | 2 | 24 | 17 | 7 | 10 | |||||||||||
Verve | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||||||||
WME | 1 | 1 | 35 | 22 | 10 | ||||||||||||
Totals | 5 | 5 | 10 |
Here are the combined pitch and spec sales numbers for agencies that have sold at least one of each in 2013.
Pitches | Specs | Total | 2012 | 2011 | |
CAA | 2 | 1 | 3 | 32 | 50 |
ICM | 1 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 27 |
Paradigm | 1 | 3 | 4 | 15 | 14 |
UTA | 1 | 2 | 3 | 34 | 30 |
WME | 3 | 1 | 4 | 62 | 50 |
The following 13 agents have been involved with at least one spec sale so far this year.
Two:
David Boxerbaum (Paradigm)
Ida Ziniti (Paradigm)
One:
Chris Licata (Paradigm)
David Park (UTA)
Geoff Morley (UTA)
Jon Huddle (UTA)
Josh Hornstock (UTA)
Matt Leipzig (Original)
Mickey Berman (UTA)
Mike Esola (WME)
Marissa Devins (UTA)
Rob Herting (Verve)
Todd Feldman (CAA)
Spec Sales by Seller - Management Companies
J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | Total | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | |
Apostle | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
Benderspink | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||
Circle of Confusion | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | |||||||||||
Energy | 1 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
Industry | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Linda Seifert | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
Zero Gravity | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
Totals | 5 | 3 | 8 |
Here are the combined pitch and spec sales for management companies that have sold at least one of each in 2013.
Pitches | Specs | Total | 2012 | 2011 | |
Apostle | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
Benderspink | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 |
Energy | 1 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 7 |
Industry | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
The following 9 managers have been involved with at least one spec sale so far in 2013.
Two:
Jeff Belkin (Zero Gravity)
One:
Brooklyn Weaver (Energy)
David Alpert (Circle)
DJ Talbot
George Heller (Apostle)
Greg Shephard (Circle)
Jake Wagner (Benderspink)
Linda Seifert
Michael Botti (Industry)
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
