Budget, Rating and Box Office OH MY

These are the three dark riders that lurk menacingly on the edges of the dreams of writers. Should we let box office potential dictate our imaginings? Or the rating our story might get? Or the cost?

If you were to write a script based on recent trade news and box office, you’d write a movie about old guys on motorcycles that talk, being chased by naked CGI Spartans who are ultimately foiled by Eddie Murphy in a fat suit.

Rouge Wavers, this is no way to write. At the same time, it is true that writers should be aware of the realities (and vagaries) of the business. To trot out that old, tired trope: they don’t call it show friends. Movies are commerce.

The Wave-inatrix feels that the act of creation and the impulse to write is almost a sacred thing. If the spirit moves you to write a sci-fi/fantasy mega-budget epic then you should write it. But be aware that the fact that you are an unproven writer trying to sell a huge budget script will most likely rule out a deal. Never say never – the annals are full of stories of movies that shouldn’t have been made and yet they were. But as a new writer trying to break in, there are a few things you should be aware of.

Production companies, unfortunately, play it safe. They are, for the most part, looking for straight-up-the-middle PG-13, medium budget crowd-pleasers. Art-house, independent, riskier material has a different market and that is a subject for another day. I am speaking to the mainstream market that most writers aim for. Writers who would like to see their work at the local Cineplex.

How in the heck do you know what kind of budget your script would call for? Well, think about this:

Locations: Are they exotic? Are there several locations? This costs a great deal of money for production companies.
FX: Does your script contain a lot of special effects? Are there expensive car chases, explosions or dangerous stunts and sequences?
Cast: Is the main character going to sink or swim based on whether the role is given to Russell Crowe? Stars drive up the costs of movies considerably.

What is the box office (or commercial) potential of your material? Should you care? Well, yes you should. Again – it’s called show business. You are asking a production company to spend potentially millions of dollars to make your movie. And what do they want in exchange? A return on the investment - box office dollars. But how do you predict whether your movie-to-be will draw crowds?

When readers are asked that selfsame question from a production company after we have reviewed a script, we ponder the blank space entitled “Commercial Potential” and we think to ourselves…

Is this a high concept script? A highly entertaining central conceit that is so simple, so beautiful and so fun that it’s a slam dunk.
Is this a tentpole? A star vehicle, big adventure with the whiff of franchise?
Is this a Sunday afternoon genre? Drama, romance, period?
Is this material HOT? Very zeitgeisty or provocative?

Rouge Wavers, examine your material with total honesty. Who is your intended audience? The Wave-inatrix actually feels strongly that you should ask this question of your material while you are developing the idea – not after having written the script. Often, I read scripts and I wonder, in total disbelief, who did the writer think was going to see this? This is material that is “soft”, dull, self-referential, weepy, navel-gazy or otherwise adolescent and it is plain that the writer didn’t get out of his or her own head and remember that audiences are wide and varied and that you have to write something universally resonant. This is a Wave-inatrix pet peeve – I call it the Self-Absorbed, Myopic Writer Syndrome and it makes the Wave-inatrix really really frustrated because movies are for AUDIENCES full of STRANGERS not YOU, your FRIENDS and your MOM. Hold on, I must wash down another sedative with my coffee.

All right, sorry. I’m back. Think calm thoughts. Blue, blue waves. Fluffy clouds. Serene fish. Swimming. Serenely.

At the end of the day, Rouge Wavers, if you feel absolutely driven and convinced to complete your NC-17, black and white, self-biopic about your struggle with sex, therapy and tapioca, the Wave-inatrix says – follow that crazy muse of yours and go for it. With the awareness that the road to develop and finance your material may be a long and lonely one. Don’t expect to be taking any meetings on the Sony lot.

Writers in the throes of trying to make it over the wall of the Citadel must rely on many sources of self-soothing to maintain the stamina required. The short list might include drinking, smoking and neurotic ranting. But writers, we need something else – the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Pluck that apple and take a big, juicy bite!

Follow the trades; watch the deals going down. Develop and awareness of trends at the box office. And then, Rouge Wavers, use that copy of Variety to line the bird cage, make another cup of coffee and write your beautiful/crazy heart out.

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