As I wrote in my guest post at Cogswell College’s blog, I
had the privilege of hearing a Hollywood producer discuss the process of
converting a story from book to screen at this year’s San Francisco Writer’s
Conference. There’s quite the demand for adaptations, apparently. As our guest
said at the panel, “Everyone is looking for a built-in audience.”
And so they are. While original screenplays accounted for
over 50% of motion picture market share in the years 1995 through 2000, since then
they have undergone a bumpy decline. In 2012, just under 40% of the market
comprised films produced from original screenplays. (See for yourself at The Numbers.) A 10% decline may not seem
like much, but a downward trend is apparent. Gross ticket sales paint grim
picture: original movies sold over 500,000 tickets in 1995. In 2012, they sold
less than 200,000.
