Original Screenplays and Fresh Voices Are Not Dead
Don’t let anyone tell you Hollywood is all about sequels, adaptations and remakes. Some of Hollywood’s biggest box office successes have been original screenplays, many written by first time writers. The following is a list of films based on original screenplays by first time writers (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
|
|