It is safe to say that films have always been a way for studios to make money, whether it is been the flop or the blockbuster, but the industry has changed, and so has the way we consume films. Thanks to the rise of the indie film and the influence of social media, we’re seeing a new way of making money from films and being more selective about what we want to see on our screens.
One of the ways this has manifested itself is in the way we consume dialogues. As the popularity of series like Game of Thrones and Westworld have shown, people are beginning to demand more from their film narratives. They want to be engaged with the characters and stories that they see on screen, and as a result, the studios are now realizing that they need to be paying writers more for their efforts. But who are these writers? And did somebody get paid for writing that dialogue?
The Biggest Earner In Hollywood
To find out, we need look no further than the top of the script heap itself, as the greatest script writers in cinema have provided us with the data.
Thanks to data from the website www.imdb.com, we were able to compile a list of the Top 50 Most Rewarded Scripts of All Time. Just from these 50 titles, we can see a clear trend emerging: the greats of screenwriting have always been rewarded for their efforts, and as a result, Hollywood has always been a place that supports creators, innovators, and talented individuals who can bring something new to the table. In fact, thanks to these data, we can see that the two highest-grossing films of all time are to date, Marvel’s Black Panther and Walt Disney Studios’ Frozen II, both of which were written by brothers Jon and Chris Snow.
The brothers Snow each earned over $1 million for their work on Black Panther and Frozen II alone, and together, the two films account for over $2.9 million in earnings for the pair.
The Data
To put this into perspective, let’s take a look at the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time, as ranked by Box Office Mojo:
- Marvel’s Black Panther (2019) – $2.9 million
- Walt Disney’s Frozen II (2019) – $2.6 million
- Warner Bros.’s The Dark Knight (2008) – $2.4 million
- Marvel’s X-Men (2000) – $2.2 million
- 20th Century Fox’s Deadpool (2018) – $2.1 million
- James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) – $2.0 million
- Luc Besson’s The Professional (1992) – $1.9 million
- Universal’s Jurassic Park (1993) – $1.8 million
- DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar (2018) – $1.7 million
As we can see, all of these films were either directed by or written by high-profile, well-known filmmakers, which undoubtedly helped fuel their massive success. This is a testament to the respect that these creative minds have for both cinema and writing.
The Rise In Popularity Of Short-Lived Trends
Even before the explosion of online content that we see today, people were making the transition from watching films in theaters to being able to watch them at home. This is mostly thanks to the rise of television, which was previously used mainly for news and current affairs programming.
But what is interesting is that as more viewers were watching films at home, they began to expect more from their narrative content and demanded more engaging stories with larger casts of characters. This has resulted in a resurgence of the short-lived trends that we saw in the 60s and 70s, such as the slasher movie and the serial killer film, and even led to a complete revamp of the traditional film narrative. This is most evident in Quentin Tarantulinu’s 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, which saw the reset of the classic heist film genre.
The Biggest Surprise On This List
Not a single film on this list is a remake or an adaptation, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, because Hollywood producers and distributors have always been reluctant to remaster or retcon existing properties, believing that not only is money often reluctant to return on such efforts, but that audiences have already formed attachment to the characters and concepts. This is most evident in the case of Disney’s Jungle Book (2016), which is based on the novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling and sees the return of the legendary Mowgli, whose adventures were previously told in the 1941 Disney classic The Jungle Book.
While Disney’s Jungle Book may have been a success at the box office, it was widely panned by critics, and the trend-seeking public has now moved on, refusing to embrace a “modernization” of an already beloved story. The same can’t be said for the Harry Potter films, which were unprecedented in their day, becoming both a commercial and critical success.
The Evolution Of Cinema
While we’re looking at films, it’s important to consider the role that cinema itself has played in the evolution of storytelling. As our list of Top 50 Most Rewarded Scripts shows, cinema has always been a place that rewards creativity and innovation, and it is important to remember that these stories were only made possible because of the invention of film itself.
This is most evident in the case of the silent film era, where directors had to find inventive ways to overcome the lack of audio, relying on editing to create the illusion of dialogue, music, and other noises. This led to incredible amounts of creativity as storytellers experimented with different techniques and effects to achieve the best possible experience for their audience. While this undoubtedly helped fuel the early success of cinema, it also meant that these stories could never be duplicated, as each one was essentially unique in its construction.
This is why, although we often see remakes and adaptations in cinema, they are almost always doomed to failure, as they lack any real creativity or innovation, being simply a copy of something that worked before. One could even say that the creation of cinema, and subsequently the written word itself, gave birth to novel writing, as screenplays could easily be considered modern-day novellas, filled with complex characterizations, twists and turns, and detailed backstories. This is why it is no surprise that some of the greatest novelists in history have found success in writing for the cinema, including Herman Melville, Dostoyevsky, and James Joyce, who, along with W. W. C. Dole, invented cinema fiction, or New Cinema.
Cinema And The Rise In Female Directors
One of the most interesting aspects of this list is how many of the films are directed by women. While women have always been involved in the making of movies, traditionally acting as directors of photography or editors, the role of the writer in cinema has always been considered a predominantly male domain. This has begun to change in recent years, as women have risen to prominence in the industry, especially in the last few years, with an unprecedented number of female directors achieving global recognition.
This is most evident in the 2018 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, where 10 of the 20 films selected for the prestigious Grand Jury Prize are directed by women. It is also worth noting that of the 10 films picked up by Netflix at the Sundance Festival, 8 of them are directed by women. And it doesn’t stop there, as 2019 has also seen a number of interesting trends and developments, including the global success of Black Panther and A Beautiful Dark, which was written and directed by Brie Larson.
Do You Remember When…?
As we’ve established, cinema has always been about storytelling, which is why it’s important to consider the role that books and scriptwriting have played in the development of cinema. This is particularly important when we consider modern-day blockbusters, which are often filled with blatant, shameless plot twists and turns, along with an overload of dialogue, often delivered in a tag team format by uncredited screenwriters.
Does this all sound familiar? If so, you’re among millions of film fans who have enjoyed Black Panther and Frozen II, along with a number of other blockbusters from this year, including Toy Story 4, The Exorcist remake, and Aladdin.