Professional screenwriters can make a great living writing feature screenplays and working in writers rooms for streaming and television series —  as much as six to seven figures per year at the highest level. However, most that make it to that level have to pay their dues well before that. 

Screenwriting is not for everyone, and not everyone will make it — but if it’s what you’re destined to do and where your passion lies, here’s a breakdown of what the average salary of a screenwriter can be, and what screenwriters should expect along the way. 

Screenwriters Don’t Work on Salary

Back in the earlier days of Hollywood, screenwriters worked for studios as contracted employees, much like the actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood did. They were signed for X amount of years to write whatever screenplays the studios wanted to assign to them. 

After the 1960s and 1970s, when the studio system began to change, screenwriters were hired per project — and that is how it has remained to this day. 

You either sell a screenplay to studios, production companies, streamers, or networks, or you are hired by them on a project-by-project basis for writing assignments. For streaming and TV series, the average screenwriter salary is slightly different, as you’ll be hired season-by-season to be a part of a writers room collective who make different contract amounts per designated position within the room. 

The Five Tiers of Screenwriter Salary

Let’s start with the five tiers of screenwriter salaries because not every screenwriter gets paid the same as others. 

1. Top 1% Earners
2. Streaming/Television Episodic Writers
3. Guild Screenwriters
4. Non-Guild Screenwriters
5. Indie Screenwriters

TOP 1% Earners

This applies to both film and streamer/television work. We’re talking about the screenwriters that are writing major studio releases and highly successful episodic shows. The top one percent earners are the ones with proven track records who are able to get six to seven figures (hundreds of thousands of dollars to multiple millions) per feature script contract or per season of an episodic contract average. 

The moniker top 1% says it all. They represent the top one percent of professional screenwriters — and screenwriter earnings overall. 

Streaming/Television Episodic Writers

When you’re writing for a series, you’re paid out differently because everything is broken down to a weekly or bi-weekly portion of an overall season contract amount. And just because you’re hired to be a part of the writers room for one season doesn’t mean you, or anyone within that room, will be brought back for another season. 

Guild Screenwriters

Feature screenwriters who are a member of the Writers Guild of America will make at least the guild minimums, as stipulated in the up-to-date guild schedule of minimums for its members. Guild signatory companies (signatory production companies, studios, streamers, networks) must pay at least these minimums, which are based on a highly specific contract protecting guild members and their screenwriting wages. These guild contracts and stipulations are renegotiated with signatory companies every few years. 

If you’re a guild member, you’re entitled to at least the minimums presented in the current guild contract. But you’re often eventually paid higher than the minimums based on your experience, negotiations, and the scope (budget) of the project. 

Non-Guild Screenwriters

You don’t have to be a member of the guild to be a working screenwriter. I have personally earned six figures over the course of the last few years writing for non-signatory companies. The pay can be lower than guild minimums, sure. However, you may be surprised to learn that a good number of professional screenwriting contracts each year are non-guild projects. More on that later. 

Indie Screenwriters

The independent film industry doesn’t have the money the major studios, streamers, and networks have. Sure, many indies go on to make good money with wide releases, but that is after they are picked up by distributors. Most of the time, indies are shot on very limited budgets. Once they are produced, they can be picked up by buyers (studios, streamers, networks) to turn profits for the investors, producers, and filmmakers. However, the actual screenwriters are usually paid a small fraction of the low budget. 

These are the five tiers of screenwriting salary. Before we delve into how much screenwriters make under each of them, let’s talk a bit about how screenwriters get paid. 

Script Sales, Writing Assignments, Writers Rooms, and More

Screenwriters earn money in a few different ways. Lets break it down.

Screenplay Options

A company is interested in a screenplay you’ve already written (spec script), but they need to shop it to find the right home for it (and for the right financier to produce it) or they need time to package it by finding the right producer, director, and lead actor who can offer more risk-averse assurance in potential investment. If a popular producer, director, or actor is packaged into a project, there’s a higher likelihood that the eventual film will turn a profit for investors.  

Because they may not be able to buy the script upfront from you, they may offer an option agreement that garners the screenwriter some money while the company develops it. 

Back in the screenwriting boom of the 1990s, option offers could go as high as $10,000 or beyond to hold the script for development — usually for six months to a year. An option agreement would ensure that a hot property wouldn’t be able to be shopped elsewhere during that time. 

These days, paid option agreements aren’t as prevalent. Within the last couple of decades, option agreement fees have been reduced to an average of maybe a couple of thousand dollars per option. It’s also now more likely to see legit companies offer option agreements (now renamed as shopping agreements) for no money.

Script Sales

The pinnacle of any screenwriter’s screenwriting journey is selling a screenplay, which involves a company paying for the ownership of an original screenplay written by a screenwriter. The script was written on speculation that it would sell to someone, and is then bought by a company. Once that happens, the screenwriter signs over all rights to the screenplay (and the contents within) to the buyer. With most purchase contracts, the original screenwriter is offered the first rewrite of the script after development notes are given — but that’s not always the case. 

We’ll discuss the dynamics of a script sale more below.   

Writing Assignment Contracts 

Writing assignment contracts are the bread and butter of working screenwriters. Writing assignments are when a screenwriter is hired to develop and write a screenplay for a company that is based on their ideas, concepts, or intellectual properties. 

In short, they own something that needs a screenwriter to develop and adapt it for a screenplay. This also includes assignments like writing sequels, remakes, and reboots. 

Sometimes companies bring in a screenwriter to handle a particular aspect of a script based on the screenwriter’s proven specialities, such as:

• Dialogue rewrites
• Action sequence rewrites
• Punching up the comedy  

These types of assignments are usually uncredited because, by guild stipulations, if a screenwriter hasn’t contributed to at least 33% of the final shooting draft of a film, they are not entitled to an onscreen credit. But you can still get paid.

Writers Rooms

A writing room for a streaming or television series consists of a hierarchy of hired writers and producers. 

1. Executive Producers/Showrunners — Have the final say in all aspects of the series.
2. Co-Executive Producers — Second in charge of the series and are usually the last to read the final scripts before those scripts are sent to the Showrunner for final approval (unless they are designated to clear them). 
3. Supervising Producers — Senior-level writers who take on significant responsibilities, often collaborating closely with the writing staff throughout the long hours of story development, breaking the story, and writing the episodes.
4. Producers — Experienced writers in the writers’ room who have been promoted by taking on duties beyond just writing scripts. They contribute to casting decisions, production, and the overall creative direction of the show, with staff writers reporting to them.
5. Co-Producers — Manage a range of tasks delegated by the producers. While still serving as writers, they’re gradually climbing the ranks, taking on added responsibilities and decision-making roles that go beyond the scope of staff writers, proving themselves through hands-on experience.
6. Story Editors — Writers who’ve been with the show long enough to step into a leadership role within the writers’ room. As an advanced tier of staff writers, they receive WGA-mandated pay and credit protections, earning a season salary while also getting paid for the individual scripts they write.
7. Staff Writer — Develop and break story. They are not guaranteed credit like Story Editors, but they help brainstorm and problem-solve story arcs, character arcs, dialogue, plot, etc. 
8. Writer Assistants — Support the writers’ room by taking notes during story breaks, organizing ideas, proofreading scripts, and handling research as needed.
9. Writer PAs — PAs keep the office running by handling calls, errands, meals, and general upkeep, managing all the non-writing tasks that support the writers’ room. 

Only one or two of these people are usually credited for an episode of a series when it comes to the teleplay (script). Yet everyone works to write the best episode and season possible. 

How Much Do Screenwriters Make?

Okay, so you know the five tiers of what screenwriters make.  

1. Top 1% Earners
2. Streaming/Television Episodic Writers
3. Guild Screenwriters
4. Non-Guild Screenwriters
5. Indie Screenwriters

So, what do these types of screenwriters get paid? How much overall salary do they make? 

Remember, It’s Per Contract

There is no definitive answer because all of a screenwriter’s salary comes by way of a project-by-project basis. Prospects for screenwriters in the Film/TV industry ebb and flow. A screenwriter may sell a script one year, and never sell one again. Another screenwriter may get one assignment with a major studio, and never get one again. Other screenwriters may have ten produced assignments within a few years, but never sell a single spec script. 

There’s no way to gauge a screenwriter’s salary on a general basis because there are so many different factors at play. 

But here’s what each of these tiers can make per contract. 

How Much Do Top 1% Earning Screenwriters Make?

We won’t cover the guild minimums here because the top one percent make much more than that. It will all depend on the screenwriter and what they’ve done. However, it’s easy to say that these top tier screenwriters make six figures for each contract at the very least. 

You’ll usually see announcements in the trades stating that a top screenwriter has either outright sold a screenplay or has been hired to write a screenplay. The announcements may mention two different six figure amounts — one amount against another amount. 

Example: $200,000 against $350,000

What that means is that the screenwriter will be paid a lump sum of $200,000 to start. If the film goes into production, they will then be owed the remainder of the higher figure — in this example’s case, an extra $150,000. In many contracts, the remaining balance paid out is considered the production bonus. 

But remember, this is for that top one percent. It can take a whole career to get to that level — or you can luck out and be at the right time, right place, with the right person and right script earlier on in your screenwriting career (recently an unknown screenwriter sold his spec script for a reported eyewatering $3 million). 

How Much Do Streaming/Television Episodic Writers Make?

Streaming and television episodic writers earn their income on a per-episode basis and are typically covered by Writers Guild of America (WGA) agreements. For each episode written, a 30-minute installment can pay between $14,000 and $25,000, while a 60-minute episode can range from $24,000 to over $50,000. 

Staff writers on streaming series often earn weekly salaries starting at $4,500 for entry-level positions, with mid-level writers making between $7,000 and $12,500 per week, and upper-level producers earning $15,000 or more. Over the course of a full streaming season, writers may make anywhere from $75,000 to $350,000 or more, depending on the number of episodes and their rank in the writers’ room.

Showrunners and executive producers can earn millions for successful shows. 

How Much Do Guild Screenwriters Make?

Guild screenwriters working under WGA contracts on feature films have set minimums that provide a baseline for earnings. As of 2024, the minimum payment for an original screenplay is around $106,000, while rewrites and adaptations start at approximately $54,000. However, in practice, many guild screenwriters on studio projects earn between $100,000 and $500,000 per script, particularly when working on higher-budget films. These contracts also come with additional benefits like residual payments, credit protections, and pension and health contributions, making WGA-covered work highly sought after.

How Much Do Non-Guild Screenwriters Make?

Non-Guild screenwriters who work outside of guild jurisdiction often write for independent producers, international companies, or lower budget films. TV or streaming MOWs (Movies of the Week) and Direct-To-Streaming (formerly Direct-To-DVD) movies encompass mostly non-guild work. Their pay is typically far lower than union rates. However, there’s much more work with networks like Lifetime and Hallmark that make dozens upon dozens of MOWs per year, compared to the handful of major releases for each major studio.   

You might earn anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 per script. Without guild protections, non-guild screenwriters usually forgo residuals and other long-term financial benefits. 

How Much Do Indie Screenwriters Make?

Indie screenwriters operate primarily in the independent film market, where budgets tend to be smaller, and contracts are more flexible. Script fees in this category generally range from $10,000 to $75,000, depending on the film’s budget. However, some screenwriters also write for free at this tier, depending on the project. 

Micro-budget projects under $250,000 might pay around $5,000 to $10,000, while low-budget films between $250,000 and $1 million might offer $10,000 to $40,000. Mid-budget indie films with budgets between $1 million and $5 million can pay $40,000 to $75,000 or more. In many cases, indie screenwriters also negotiate backend points, allowing them to share in any future profits in exchange for accepting lower upfront payments.

Screenwriter Salary Varies Based on the Project and Experience

All of these numbers above vary, depending upon the project. Your experience as a screenwriter will come into play as well. 

The general starting points to gaining the experience you need to make a good salary as a professional screenwriter include:

• Learning the right ways to write a screenplay. 
• Creating a winning strategy to begin your screenwriting journey. 
• Entering major screenwriting contests like Final Draft’s Big Break contest.
• Getting your screenplay read by industry insiders. 

Thousands upon thousands of screenwriters earn a good living each and every year. If you are passionate and motivated about screenwriting, are willing to stick with it as you pay your dues, and are ready to learn and evolve as a screenwriter through the exhilarating ups and unfortunate but inevitable downs, you can see your screenwriting dreams come true — and earn a good salary as you do!