“There’s no single best way to determine how much screenwriters earn. It depends on the type and length of your screenplay, whether you’re an established writer with a track record, how well-known you are in the industry, and more. However, one place that we’ve seen really good salary data for screenwriters is The Black List website.
Salary is an important factor in every person’s career. The amount of money you make during your work life affects everything from the type of lifestyle you can lead to how much you can save for retirement. But salary isn’t everything. Many professional screenwriters find that the financial rewards of writing scripts for large corporations or movie studios are not enough to offset the stress and isolation that comes with their position. Part-time screenwriting jobs can be highly competitive and often require a long commute. Some freelancers spend up to 50 hours per week pursuing screenwriting opportunities, which leaves little time for friends and family.
Screenwriters are in charge of writing the script for a movie or television show. They have to be talented writers that can adapt to multiple casts, set locations and time frames. Screenwriters usually work under contract with a production company and receive a small percentage of the profits from their scripts.
Salary For Screenwriters Overview
How much does a Hollywood screenwriter make?
It’s a question that comes up all the time. And the answer is… it depends.
A screenwriter’s salary can range from $2,000 to $10,000 per month, depending on their experience and the size of their client base. But how do you get there? First, you need to become an expert in your field—and then you need to find clients who will pay you for your expertise!
The best way to do this is by attending conventions and workshops on writing for film. These events will help you learn the ropes of screenwriting and give you some practice in front of an audience.
Another great way to build up your client base is by taking advantage of social media platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn. Reach out to people who work in film (directors, producers) and offer them services as a writer or consultant. You might even be able to get into contact with someone at Netflix!
And if all else fails? Write for free! It’s a great way to build up your portfolio and get noticed by industry professionals who will eventually hire you for paid projects down the road.
What Is Screenwriting?
Screenwriting is the art of scripting a story for film or television.
Screenwriters often collaborate with other screenwriters, producers, directors, and actors to produce a finished product.
A screenplay can be written in either script (for plays) or prose form (for novels).
One of the first credited screenwriters was Ben Hecht in 1917, although many people have been involved in writing scripts before then without credit.
The Academy Awards do not recognize any “Best Original Screenplay” category but it does give awards in various categories including “Best Adapted Screenplay”.
Screenwriting is a writing form that has been around for more than 100 years. It’s the process of writing scripts for films and television shows.
Screenwriters create characters, dialogue, plot outlines, and descriptions to outline what will happen in each scene. The screenwriter then shares these ideas with a producer or director who looks over the material to see if it could be turned into a movie or TV show.
What does a screenwriter do?
Screenwriters draft, develop and produce screenplays for film media such as movies, television, short films, commercials and videos. These professionals are typically responsible for writing a plotline, creating characters and building dialogue that tells a compelling story. They often write screenplays with particular audiences in mind and tailor their work toward generating an audience’s interest.
The day-to-day duties of screenwriters may depend on a variety of factors, including the type of work they create and their writing preferences. For instance, screenwriters may specialize their writing within a specific genre of film depending on their professional interests, including comedy, horror, science fiction, romance or drama. Some screenwriters generate original material or write about real-life events while others create scripts adapted from other media, such as books or plays. With these situational factors in mind, here are a few examples of duties that most screenwriters assume as a part of their role:
- Research and establish ideas for screenplays
- Develop a treatment for screenplays
- Write or adapt a narrative for a film, television or commercial script
- Build various components into the narrative, including dialogue
- Integrate directions for visual elements like lighting and camera angles into screenplays
- Pitch screenplays to film executives and other stakeholders
- Work alongside producers and directors to execute scripts
- Market their work toward an audience
What is the job outlook for screenwriters?
The BLS projects that between 2020 and 2030, the employment of writers and authors may increase by 9%, a growth rate that is as fast as the average for all occupations. This increase in employment may result in the addition of 12,200 jobs in the field.
The BLS attributes the field’s growth to the ongoing shift toward online media and communications, which has increased the number of film materials available to consumers through their personal devices. With this, there’s been an increasing demand for feature-length films, television shows, short films and videos accessible through streaming platforms, and more screenwriters may be able to sell their screenplays to fulfill this content need.
How much do screenwriters make?
Once you’ve figured out how to sell a movie script, the money just rolls in, right? Well, a modern screenwriter salary depends on the kind of screenplay being written.
It also depends on whether a writer is in the WGA or not.
In the 2017-2018 period, WGA spec script sales ranged from $72,600 to $136,000. The average? Around $110,000.
There are different WGA minimums for everything, from a 15-minute episode of television, to selling a movie script, to a big budget feature film. Even then, those are divided into different prices. A TV script can be divided into “story by” and “teleplay by” credits. Those are worth two different things, monetarily speaking.
Selling a movie script to a company that has signed the WGA agreement will get you a minimum of $72,662. But you don’t get all that at once. Payments for selling a screenplay are done through installments:
That means that the original treatment will get you $32,922. But, whether or not you write the script or another draft after that is completely up to the studio. They don’t have to hire you again.
Even if it’s your life story and your baby that you worked on for years, once you sell a screenplay it’s not yours anymore. It’s the studio’s intellectual property (IP) and they can do with it what they will. If they want to burn it, they can burn it. If they feel that after the first thirty grand it’s not worth continuing, they’ll shelve it forever.
But let’s say you have a good relationship with this studio and they like your treatment. So they hire you to write it into a script. That gets you $28,612. At this point, you’ve netted $68,534. That’s not bad.
Your next draft? They only have a few changes. You make them quickly and they get you that final $11,127. But as your checks come in the mail you start to see some deductions you didn’t know about.
Your screenwriting agent takes 10%. There goes $7,200. Your manager takes 10%. There goes another $7,200. Your lawyer wants 5%. There goes $3,600. So you have 75% of your fee left.
But now you have to pay Uncle Sam. There goes at least another ten percent, plus whatever your accountant charges.
All in all, you might walk away with anywhere from sixty to forty percent of your check, depending on how many people you have to pay.
Which, best case scenario for this deal, is $43,597.20.
Joe Eszterhas is, once again, laughing all the way to the bank. Selling a movie script is not a great mathematical way to get rich quick.
Is it possible to make a higher screenwriter salary? Yes, absolutely. But it’s hard. That example was done for a low-budget feature film. That’s if it costs, in total, less than $5 million.
But if you check the box office numbers for most films these days, they’re well over that. That being said, the more expensive a script is projected to cost, the harder it will be to sell.
Add that to the number of writers already working, the number of writers who want to work, and the odds of selling a screenplay — much like the check you’ll take home — drastically decreases.
