Skip to content
Home » How Much Money Does a Script Writer Make?

How Much Money Does a Script Writer Make?

Getting a PhD in philosophy is a great way to make a living. You get to argue about pretty much whatever you want and get paid well for it. So it’s no wonder that lots of script writers end up in a full-time career as a writer. It’s a great way to combine your passion for logic and reasoning with your love for storytelling. 

The average annual salary for a full-time PhD student is about $36,000. But there are ways to make even more money. For instance, if you want to write for film or television, you can often get paid per script. So if you sell a completed script for a million dollars, you can look forward to making a million dollars. More realistically, you can often get paid per draft – so if you’ve got a good idea, you can often get some quick cash for it. Just make sure you’re not getting roped into doing all the work for free. 

The Math Behind The Numbers

Let’s do the math. A million dollars is a lot of money. It’s equivalent to about 4 years of a doctoral student’s salary. But it’s not that simple. The catch is that you need to sell the script to a studio or a network. And that’s not as easy as it sounds. 

Getting a good script read is one thing. Getting a good script produced is another. The former is usually a matter of marketing and networking. The latter is usually a matter of the script itself. So if you want to make a million dollars, you’re going to have to write a good script. And this is where things get a little bit tricky. You see, it takes a while before you can start actually making money from your script. Even then, it can take a while before you actually start seeing the cash flow. So while it might be easy to sell a million-dollar script, it’s not quite that easy to actually make a million dollars off it. 

The Evolution Of Scripts

Before we give you the lowdown on how much money you can actually make as a script writer, it’s important to understand what kinds of scripts you’ll be writing. 

If you’ve got a good idea for a TV show, you can write the script and sell it to a TV network. The network will give you a cash advance and then you’ll get another advance after the show airs. It’s all about how long it takes for the network to see the returns on their investment. The same goes for films. You can write the script, sell it to a studio, and then get paid once the film is released in theaters. 

However, there are limits to how much these options are worth. For instance, it can take a while for a TV show to be picked up by a network. So while you might be able to sell a TV show to a network for $125,000, you might not actually be able to cash in on it for at least a year. The same goes for a film. You might be able to sell it for $100,000, but if you want to be truly savvy, you should take that number with a grain of salt. After all, everyone wants to make a quick buck these days, and you might just be throwing away a perfectly good sum. Better to invest that money in a simple savings account and let it sit there until you’re able to get your hands on some more cash. 

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Now that you have some idea of how much money you can make as a script writer, let’s talk about how much money you can actually make. 

On average, it takes a film about a year to a year and a half to get the money back. And it takes about another year to see some returns on your investment. The longer it takes for the money to start coming in, the more you’ll need to invest to make a profit. Once the money starts coming in, you can quit your day job and rely on the income from your writing to fund your lifestyle. If you want to make a million dollars, you’ll need to write about a winning lottery ticket or a lucrative Hollywood deal. It’s just not something you can write your way to. You might end up losing your shirt along with the rest of your team. Just something to keep in mind. 

Getting a PhD in philosophy is a great way to make a living. But if you want to make a million dollars, it might be smarter to go the traditional route and become a lawyer or businessman. Philosophy won’t get you there overnight, but it’ll get you there.