Professional Studies - Report Initial Ideas and Concepts.

My initial idea for the report was to look at the opposing success of original screenplays and adapted screenplays, particularly in Hollywood. I will be looking at the financial success of original screenplays in the face of conglomerate studios who are recycling franchises and converting existing novels and literature into films. 

Below is a link to a site discussing the highest grossing movie adaptations with numerous percentages given for evidence of this. 


https://stephenfollows.com/highest-grossing-movie-adaptations/

• 51% of the top 2,000 films of the last 20 years were movie adaptations
• The most common source for movie adaptations is literary fiction.
• 2012 saw five times the number of sequels released compared to 1999
• Romantic Comedy is the genre with the highest number of original screenplays (79%)
• Only 16% of Musicals were original screenplays.
• 18% of Horror films were remakes
• Between 1994 and 2003, original screenplays outnumbered adaptations every year but one, whereas in the following decade (2004-2013) the opposite was true, with adaptations outnumbering original screenplays in eight of the ten years.

I will also be looking at examples from contemporary cinema. I will be looking at what original screenplays made the most money and which ones won awards, opposed to adaptations released around the same time. 

Original Screenplays - 2013/2014

Both of these films were highly successful original screenplays both critically and commercially  Her won an academy award for best original screenplay in 2013, and made a total of 47.4 million at the box office. Whiplash is a film with similar notoriety, earning 49 million at the box office, also being nominated for best picture at the 2014 oscars. 

On the other hand, the highest grossing screenplay adaptations of 2013 and 2014 were: The Hunger Games Catching Fire which is based on the bestselling novels (424 million) and Frozen, based on the original fairytale The Snow Queen; (400 million). 

Opening Weekend 2013 Gross 

1. Frozen — $31.6 million
2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire — $27 million
3. Out of the Furnace* — $5.3 million
4. Thor: The Dark World — $4.7 million
5. Delivery Man — $3.8 million
6. Homefront — $3.4 million
7. The Book Thief — $2.7 million
8. The Best Man Holiday — $2.7 million
9. Philomena — $2.3 million
10. Dallas Buyers Club — $1.5 million