2010 Spec Market Scorecard — July 2010
The latest from Jason Scoggins: 2010 Spec Market Scorecard — July 2010. Two words: It sucks. Key excerpt:
All in, the studios have bought less than half as many scripts this year as they had by this point last year (13 vs 28).
I think someone (Jason?) needs to compare what the numbers are in terms of other types of acquisitions from year to year. It seems like a lot of graphic novels, comic books, and YA book series selling in 2010. Maybe the studios are simply reallocating their dollars. Or they could, in fact, be doing what they said they were going to do: focus on developing the projects they already had purchased and slow down on acquisitions this year. At some point, they’re going to have to start spending money on specs again.
But I refuse to leave you feeling glum, especially on a weekend, so here are two bits of good news:
Disney sells Miramax to investor for $660M
Richard Branson to Launch Film & TV Production Company
Although independent mini-majors face enormous odds to survive without a huge corporate backer — simply because movies are expensive and risky propositions — any new buyer is good news for writers.
H/T to Courtney Chambers for emailing me about my thoughts re the Miramax deal. Always good to keep track of the players.
UPDATE: See Walter’s clarification in comments.
UPDATE #2: Variety disputes Bloomberg take:
If Tutor has a motive for trying again and again in Hollywood, it’s that he has invested too much in the entertainment biz over the years to walk away just yet, according to interviews given by the typically press-shy exec.
Tutor will either join the ranks of Hollywood’s new group of moguls — who include Ryan Kavanaugh, Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull, Reliance ADA Group’s Anil Ambani and Sam Gores — or join the likes of Steve Bing, Neil Kadisha and Elie Samaha, who tried and failed to buy their way into the movie biz. Count Virgin’s Richard Branson as another newcomer in the film biz, as of last week.
Tutor is likely to lean toward dramas like Sidney Lumet’s “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” the Bergstein-produced pic, that make critics happy but don’t necessarily attract big crowds to the megaplex. Likewise, he would be unlikely to go after high-profile pop culture epics that Tull does, for example, or the varied slate of star-driven films and lucrative genre fare that Kavanaugh has most often backed.
Evidently going to use the Miramax library as collateral to fund production of original movies.