How much money can I expect to earn by selling a script to Hollywood? Do you have examples from famous scriptwriters?
Depends.What are you selling? A feature? A short? A TV pilot?As others have pointed out, it depends on whether or not you are a screenwriter in demand, and how much you can negotiate, which depends on: How much is your story going to cost to produce? And more importantly, what is the producer’s budget?You are most likely to get between 20–80,000 USD for your first effort.Don’t forget there is also the optioning option, which means you are basically renting the rights to your script for a certain amount of time. You can option for free, to receive the total if they decide to make the movie. You can also option for a certain amount, which will probably be a certain percentage of the total amount. If the studio moves ahead, you will get the rest after your option ends. If they don’t, you’ll still be a little better off than you’ve started. You can add optioned screenwriter to your resume, which is no small feat.But unless you make a very big impact with a high concept script that has blown aways judges at major competitions and started bidding wars between studios, you’re unlikely to get rich and retire with that first script.
On average, how long does it take to write a movie script?
I've written about fifteen screenplays "on assignment" from different production companies and studios. The contracts I sign for each project stipulate how long I have to complete three "steps." For the "first draft," I'm given 10-12 weeks. Then I get a round of notes from executives and producers. For the "revision" of that draft I'm given 6 weeks, and receive another round of notes. Lastly I do a "polish" which is supposed to take 3 weeks.So "how long it takes" is often completely determined by the deadline. I could write a screenplay in a week if my deadline were next Sunday (but not a very good one.)The important thing to remember is that screenplays are never really "finished." Drafts are finished, but they are subject to revision. You may finish your "writer's draft" of a spec script in three weeks, but that's not the draft you show anyone. After a month of revisions, you may have your "first draft," but when your friends, fellow screenwriters, and agent read it, they will have all sorts of feedback, and you will want to make changes. That cycle could take months.Then, if the screenplay is sold, you will get feedback from development executives. Then, when a director is attached, he or she will have a "take" that may change things. Production difficulties may require changes as it is shot. Just last year I was called upon to write new scenes for "reshoots" on a project that had finished principal photography four months earlier. This process of feedback, revision. and recreation could last years. I sold my first spec script, eleven years ago, and after over 20 rewrites over a decade, I just recently was paid to do yet another rewrite of a very early draft, so that (I hope, I hope, finially) the humble little movie will go into production next year.So, I'd argue that screenplays are really protean documents, subject to continual revision, and aren't "finished" until the movie actually premiers.