The Scoggins Report: March 2013 Spec Market Scorecard
The Scoggins Reportby Jason Scoggins & Cindy KaplanMarch 18, 2013 March 2013 Spec Market Scorecard It’s nice to be able to open with unqualified good news this week: Last week’s…
The Scoggins Report
by Jason Scoggins & Cindy Kaplan
March 18, 2013
March 2013
Spec Market Scorecard
It’s nice to be able to open with unqualified good news this week: Last week’s flurry of spec script sales finally put the 2013 spec market on par with 2012’s, and total spec sales for the year are finally ahead of total pitch sales as well. Still, the rolling shortage of new material on the market that started in February will continue to have an impact through at least the end of March.
The impact of that shortage is most vividly seen in the Buyers grids, below:
- Three of the six major studios still haven’t bought a spec in 2013 (Columbia, Fox and Warner Bros.).
- Only 5 Studio Buyers (the majors, their labels and the mini-majors) have bought specs so far this year, compared to 12 through the end of March 2012.
- Only 13 Other Buyers have bought specs so far this year, compared to 22 through the end of March 2012.
Go big or go home, Hollywood. And enjoy the grids.
2013 Overall Numbers
Of 2013‘s 20 spec sales, 4 were of scripts that originally went out prior to 2012. Here are the spec market numbers through March 15...
* 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 March 15, with year over year monthly comparisons...
...and here are those combined spec and pitch sales numbers in graph form as well.
Spec Sales By Genre
Spec Sales By Buyer - Studios
Here are the combined pitch and spec purchase numbers for the major Studio Buyers so far in 2013:
Spec Sales By Buyer - Other Buyers
QED is the only non-studio buyer to have bought both a spec and a pitch so far this year.
Each of the following production companies has been attached to at least one spec sale so far this year. Names in bold are new or have been attached to an additional spec since the last Scorecard.
Allison Shearmur Productions
Anonymous Content
Broken Road
Crave Films
Disruption Entertainment (2)
Electric Entertainment
Industry Entertainment
Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Le Grisbi Productions
Midnight Kitchen
Platinum Dunes
Sean Daniel Company
Spec Sales by Seller - Agencies
Here are the combined pitch and spec sales numbers for agencies that have sold at least one of each in 2013:
The following 17 agents have been involved with at least one spec sale so far this year. Names in bold are new or sold an additional spec since the last Scorecard.
Three:
Mike Esola (WME)
Two:
David Boxerbaum (Paradigm)
Geoff Morley (UTA)
Ida Ziniti (Paradigm)
Marissa Devins (UTA)
One:
Adriana Alberghetti (WME)
Chris Licata (Paradigm)
Dan Erlij (UTA)
David Park (UTA)
Jason Burns (UTA)
Jon Huddle (UTA)
Josh Hornstock (UTA)
Matt Leipzig (Original)
Mickey Berman (UTA)
Rob Herting (Verve)
Shan Ray (KSA)
Todd Feldman (CAA)
Spec 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 2013.
The following 13 managers have been involved with at least one spec sale so far in 2013.
Five:
Brooklyn Weaver (Energy)
Two:
Jake Wagner (Benderspink)
Jeff Belkin (Zero Gravity)
One:
David Alpert (Circle)
DJ Talbot
George Heller (Apostle)
Greg Shephard (Circle)
Jeff Ross
Jeff Silver (Fourth Floor)
Josh Adler (New Wave)
Linda Seifert
Michael Botti (Industry)
Mike Goldberg (New Wave)
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.

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