Analysis: 2015 Black List
A deep dive into the scripts named to this year’s annual Black List.
The 2015 Black List rolled out last week — you can find titles, writers and loglines for all of the selected scripts here — and as promised, today we have some statistics and analysis for you.
First some interesting stats about this year’s Black List:
* There are 81 screenplays on the 2015 Black List (There were 70 screenplays on the 2014 Black List)
* More than 250 working film executives at major Hollywood financiers and production companies contributed to the 2015 Black List
* 45.7% of the scripts on the 2015 Black List have a financier attached (47.1% on 2014 Black List)
* 74.1% of the scripts on 2015 Black List have a producer attached (73.2% on the 2014 Black List)
* 19.8% of 2015 Black List writers are females (16) compared to 12.8% (9) on the 2014 Black List
* 22 of 81 scripts on the 2015 Black List explicitly require female leads (27%)
* 8 writers (or teams) on the 2015 Black List do not have an agent (4 in 2014)
* 3 writers (or teams) on 2015 Black List do not have a manager (9 on 2014 Black List)
* 31 scripts are based on nonfiction source material
* 14 biopics on the 2015 Black List compared to 10 last year
* No writers have multiple scripts on the 2015 Black List. One writer, Randall Green, had two last year — Cartoon Girl, The Swimsuit Issue
Drilling down into the scripts:
Real life stories are prominent in the 2015 Black List including biopics (Bubbles, Stronger, Rocket, True Fan, White Boy Rick, Queen of the Air) and stories inspired by true events (All the Money in the World, The Virginian, Castle Drive, Mayday 109, Nyad, Circle of Treason, Hunting Eichmann, Battle of New Orleans LAbyrinth, Songs of Treblinka).
Most popular genres (in order of popularity): Drama, Action, Thriller, Comedy
3 scripts feature a serial killer: Crimson Trail, Green River Killer, The Wretched Emily Erringer.
2 scripts deal with astronauts: Ares and Pale Blue Dot.
2 scripts set in the world of hip hop: White Boy Rick and LAbyrinth.
2 scripts deal with terminally ill characters: Hammerspace and The Water Man.
2 scripts touch on real life exploits of the Kennedy family: Mayday 109 and Chappaquiddick.
2 scripts about the making of the movie The Godfather: I Believe in America and Francis and The Godfather.
What to make of all this?
As always, the fact financier and studio executives continue — year after year — to spotlight dramas as their favorite genre suggests the people involved in movie development have serious tastes.
Unfortunately the fact so many dramas of such quality remain unproduced are yet another sign how the major studios have relinquished that space, particularly mid-budget dramas.
But then a movie like Creed comes along. The sports drama, which had a reported $35M production budget, has already grossed $97M before finishing its domestic run and expanding into international markets. Moreover with a bump in numbers over Christmas week plus a couple of possible Oscar nominations, such as Sylvester Stallone for Best Supporting Actor, the film could go on to make a tidy profit. Yes, it’s a kind of sequel and benefits from a certain amount of brand awareness, but BWOM has been strong despite the fact there are only three boxing matches in the movie and the movie is very much a throwback to 70s storytelling sensibilities, heavy on character.
So perhaps some of the 2015 Black List drama scripts will get a bump toward production due to the success of Creed.
Another thing: While about half of the Black List scripts this year are biopics or based on nonfiction source material, the fact is nearly 50% of stories are original in nature. And some of them are really original including the #1 script on the list “Bubbles,” the Michael Jackson story as told from the perspective of the singer’s pet monkey!
As always, I encourage people to read as many of these Black List scripts as possible. These 81 scripts represent, as best as we can know at this moment in time, where development execs’ heads are at and most importantly what types of stories resonate with them in a positive way.
More stats:
Black List 2015: Scripts By Management Company
Madhouse Entertainment — 9
Grandview — 8
Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment — 7
Bellvue Productions — 3.5
Industry Entertainment — 3.5
3 Arts Entertainment — 3
MXN Entertainment — 3
Principato-Young Management — 3
Management 360–2.5
Curtis Brown Group Ltd (UK) — 2
Lee Stobby Entertainment — 2
Management SGC — 2
The Mission Entertainment — 2
Think Tank Management and Production — 2
Anonymous Content — 1.5
Affirmative Entertainment — 1
Apostle Pictures — 1
Benderspink — 1
Brio Entertainment — 1
Circle of Confusion — 1
DMG Entertainment — 1
Energy Entertainment — 1
Epicenter — 1
Haven Entertainment — 1
Kailey Marsh Media — 1
Kevin Donahue Literary Management — 1
LBI Entertainment — 1
Magnet Management — 1
MGMT Entertainment — 1
Mindframe Films & Management — 1
Pacific View Management — 1
Project D Media — 1
Sanders Armstrong Caserta — 1
The Syndicate — 1
Thruline Entertainment — 1
Underground — 1
Untitled Entertainment — 1
Writ Large — 1
Zero Gravity Management — 1
BE Management — 0.5
Via Deadline.
Black List 2015: Scripts By Agency
WME — 15.5
CAA — 15.5
UTA — 14
Paradigm — 8
Gersh — 5
Verve — 5
APA — 4
ICM Partners — 4
The Agency Ltd (UK) — 1
Equitable Stewardship for Artists — 1
Kaplan Stahler Agency — 1
Via Deadline.
There you have it: Another annual Black List put to bed. For the writers who made the List this year, it’s up and at ’em time, a whole slew of meetings on Hollywood’s perpetual bottled water tour in the offing… only now these writers will be perceived as having a lot more heat than before.
Industry news coverage of the 2015 Black List:
Franklin Leonard on KPCC’s “The Frame”.
Follow the Black List on Twitter:
@megalie @terrykhuang @thathagengrrl @franklinleonard @GoIntoTheStory
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