Joel Mendoza - Co-Founder Fresh Voices/ CEO Attraction Entertainment
Looking back on movie releases from the last 20 years, it’s easy to see why one would believe that Hollywood is stuck in remake rut, relying too heavily on sequels, prequels, adaptations, reboots, and remakes. One could even be forgiven for arguing that there are no original scripts coming out of Hollywood anymore.
But don’t be discouraged. Many original screenplays break through the Hollywood gridlock and find huge success at the box office. What’s even more exciting is that many are written by previously unproduced writers. Below is just a partial list of successful films based on original screenplays written by unproduced screenwriters. (Box Office numbers as reported by Box Office Mojo.)
|
YEAR |
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY |
WORLD WIDE BOX OFFICE |
WRITER(S) |
|
2008 |
Hancock |
$624,000,000 |
Vincent Ngo |
|
2008 |
Wall-E |
$521,000,000 |
Jim Reardon |
|
2008 |
Gran Torino |
$270,000,000 |
Nick Schenk & Dave Johansen |
|
2008 |
Kung Fu Panda |
$632,000,000 |
Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger |
|
2007 |
Juno |
$231,000,000 |
Diablo Cody |
|
2007 |
Ratatouille |
$623,000,000 |
Jim Capobianco |
|
2006 |
Cars |
$462,000,000 |
Dan Fogelman, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin |
|
2006 |
The Break Up |
$205,000,000 |
Jeremy Garelick & Jay Lavender |
|
2006 |
Little Miss Sunshine |
$101,000,000 |
Michael Arndt |
|
2005 |
Wedding Crashers |
$285,000,000 |
Steve Faber & Bob Fisher |
|
2005 |
Madagascar |
$533,000,000 |
Mark Burton |
|
2005 |
Hitch |
$368,000,000 |
Kevin Bisch |
|
2004 |
The Day After Tomorrow |
$544,000,000 |
Jeffrey Nachmanoff |
|
2003 |
Finding Nemo |
$868,000,000 |
Bob Peterson |
|
2003 |
Bruce Almighty |
$485,000,000 |
Mark O’Keefe |
|
2003 |
Elf |
$220,000,000 |
David Berenbaum |
|
2002 |
Ice Age |
$383,000,000 |
Michael J. Wilson |
|
2002 |
My Big Fat Greek Wedding |
$369,000,000 |
Nia Vardalos |
|
2001 |
Monsters Inc. |
$525,000,000 |
Ralph Eggleston, Daniel Gerson |
|
2000 |
What Women Want |
$374,000,000 |
Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa |
|
2000 |
Scary Movie |
$278,000,000 |
Buddy Johnson |
|
1999 |
American Beauty |
$356,000,000 |
Alan Ball |
|
1998 |
There’s Something About Mary |
$370,000,000 |
Decter & Strauss |
|
1997 |
Good Will Hunting |
$226,000,000 |
Matt Damon & Ben Affleck |
|
1995 |
Braveheart |
$210,000,000 |
Randall Wallace |
|
1990 |
Pretty Woman |
$463,000,000 |
J.F. Lawton |
Author: Joel Mendoza August 2010