There was a very interesting statement from film critic Amy Nicholson:
"For decades, the major studios have wandered away from producing mid-budget comedies and adult dramas to gamble their money on gargantuan summer blockbusters. I'd love to see the industry recover by greenlighting an eclectic slate of $5-$15 million flicks that could make moviegoing fun again. Time to swap out financial risks for creative risks.
Could this be a new opportunity for screenwriters to write more mid-range films? Would this mean that studios would produce more films since the budgets are lower? Thoughts?
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You might be missing the reason why they stopped making mid-budget projects; They couldn't recoup their costs. People didn't want to see them.
The Blumhouse model of making genre films at $5m or less has been very successful. Horror and Thriller are popular genres that can be made at that price. Heck, UPGRADE is science fiction made at that price.
If you focus on a current popular genre and write a script that can be made on a limited budget, with an amazing concept, you have increased your odds.
No need to hope that the business does something that has been proven unprofitable in the past.
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At the American Film Market last year the most popular projects picked up were mid-budget thriller-flicks ($30-40m) with stars who can drive ticket sales, like Liam Neeson, Ben Affleck, Jason Statham, etc. But like William said, though, your odds of success as a writer increase when you target lower budgets. Just look at the call-outs for scripts on services like Screenwriting Staffing and Inktip - the vast majority of those producers want that kind of stuff.
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Thanks for posting this, Martin. I hope Amy is right. I have a mid-budget script myself which is a period piece based on historical events. To me, the horror genre is the easiest to sell, but I am not that type of screenwriter.
I own Disney stocks. This new CEO picked the wrong year to be in charge. Pray he pumps out Star Wars and Marvel movies faster for 2021 & 2022.
I haven’t seen any public talks by studio bosses - Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Universal, Sony- what their plans for 2021 resurrection.
In a shameless bit of self promotion. I have a blog post on this. It reminds me of the great potato famine (stay with me). Ireland had a high yield potato. So everyone planted just that (think superhero movies). When that crop had problems a famine hit.
So cinema has driven the audience for non superhero films to streaming. Now the pandemic has pushed superhero audiences there as well.
Here is a blog post that may make us amateurs happy.
http://griffithscreative.com.au/how-covid-19-corona-virus-will-affect-in...
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I read an article about upfronts and it's clear the networks and advertisers are in free fall, trying to figure out what deals work. This is TV, so films are in a slightly different boat. But the upshot is nobody really knows - they're making decisions based on best-guesses, hoping they ultimately pick the right horse.
Mix metaphors much? :)
There’s wall street chatter Netflix will buy AMC movie theaters.
Dan MaxXx Interesting, that would guarantee that they have control over their own exhibition. No minimum days etc. This would enable them to get minimum and still qualify for the Oscars.
Plus the AMC stock price would be crap at the moment. Netflix has a steady income stream.
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If Netflix buys AMC movie theaters that would be huge!
Yeah i read about that Netflix deal with AMC, to in order to "save them" from crashing down. I read as well a Deadline article i think where Universal is going to make lots of low budget; 5-15 mill range, flicks based on the Blumhouse model. More opportunity for us i guess.
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Well Nick, I guess it's time for me to make funny sci-fi and horror. LOL!
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We can thank the Trump administration for the recent legislation allowing Movie studios to now own movie theater chains. Netflix buying AMC is like Paramount buying Regal. We had actual laws against this. For obvious reasons. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/11/justice-depart...
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Studios are stilling going to have huge fixed costs no matter what happens. They have no choice but to keep making those big budget movies just to keep their doors open. They can’t afford to swap out financial risks for creative risks. They call this "Show Business" instead of "Show Art" for a reason. Money!
Richard. I too have written a few of those big budget film scripts. I managed to option a couple of them and I also wrote one on assignment that died in development hell. Anyway the people that produce those type of films is a pretty small group compared to those who make lower to middle budget films. When they say it's a "who you know business" that's especially true when it comes to big budget movies. They all seem to know and work together on films. What helped me market my big budget film scripts was to attach a couple of directors who have worked on those big budget films to some of my screenplays. Doing that could make your script more valuable and open a few more doors. Anyway I just thought I'd pass that on. Good luck with yours!!!!
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On Todd Garner's podcast, he just had on Rob Friedman who worked at Paramount, Lionsgate, and is just starting a new venture to focus specifically on those mid-range films. He said that he believes they can be commercially successful because - as he put it - if you look at the films that land right under the Star Wars films and Marvel films, in terms of box office - they are all mid-range films.
David. Even if they do I doubt they will change their "we don't accept unsolicited material" from unknown screenwriter policy unless you have an Agent or a Manger or Entertainment Lawyer Attorney they already know.
CJ. They might fund them because they know the producers but that doesn't mean they are producing them themselves.