The 10 Most Expensive Screenplays Ever

Yesterday I featured this post about Shane Black in which there was this:

The 50-year-old isn’t Hollywood’s most prolific writer — he only has a handful of credits, including the first Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and The Last Boy Scout — but for a time, he was its most highly paid, and the $4 million he earned for the 1996 action film The Long Kiss Goodnight is still a Hollywood record for a spec script.

But is that $4M mark for The Long Kiss Goodnight actually the top figure for a spec script sale?

That’s not what an article from CelebrityNetWorth says. Here is their list of the 10 Most Expensive Screenplays Ever:

A Knight’s Tale — $2.5M

Mozart and the Whale — $2.75M

Medicine Man — $3M

Basic Instinct — $3M

Eurotrip — $4M

Talladega Nights — $4M

Panic Room — $4M

The Long Kiss Goodnight — $4M

Deja Vu — $5M

You’ll note there are only 9 because one of the projects listed is The Pink Panther which was not a spec script, but a deal made with Steve Martin to rewrite the project.

Plus there are several other spec scripts that sold for $2.5M including The Sixth Sense, Twister, and Jade, and $3M including unproduced scripts Bad Dog and Married in the Morning. In addition White House Down sold in 2012 for a reported $3M.

But as the article points out and for the record as far as we know, the highest priced spec script to sell is Deja Vu for a cool $5M.

My wish for you: That you write a spec script that sells for $5,000,0001 to top the list.

For more of the article, go here.

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