Making a Drama in Today's Market
Genres analysis.
I speak to sales agents at times, or I’ll go to panels, and for a solid few years now I’ve been hearing the same thing again and again: do not make a drama.
I will just straight off the bat say I personally disagree with this concept, I have no intent on ever not making a drama (be it as a producer or director) purely because the market doesn’t think it’s the right move at that point in time; I’ll expand on my own personal views a little further below. For now, let’s break down why agents and producers are really trying to hammer down this principle.
The truth is, annoyingly, very simple - drama just has a more limited audience appeal and is much tougher to promote to moviegoers. Wide audiences generally go for things that are a little bit lighter in their themes, like an action flick or a thriller, or something more genre-focused or with a particular hook, like sci-fi or horror.
What I wondered was when the point of change in audience desire came: it’s true that drama has always been more difficult to make because those projects don’t usually have a particular high-concept premise one could use to sell and distribute, but there still were more dramas, in the absolute traditional sense of the genre, in the 90s and early 2000s. Now, almost all dramas on the market either have a unique edge, are period, or are in some way a genre-blend. Making Good Will Hunting in 2025 would be nearly impossible (and yes, it was insanely difficult for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon even in 1997).
I think this point of change in audience desire probably came with streaming: films are generally a lot less profitable nowadays, box office is lower because audiences wait for the film to come out on any one of the many platforms they subscribe to, and the distribution sale to those particular platforms is not enough to make up the difference between a wide theatrical release or a DVD sale. Audiences are just generally less likely to go to the theater these days, especially when what they are going to see is not a ‘cinema movie’ - an insane concept to me, because every movie is by definition a cinema movie.
I also do think there are various socio-economical factors that have shifted audience perception and have generally guided us away from heavier films and towards things that are just a little bit lighter and more ‘entertaining’ - this is a whole other topic, but I do feel it’s worth quickly mentioning as it is a legitimate and important factor in what films get produced and seen.
So, at the end of the day, it’s just about demand and supply. Producers aim to supply what audiences demand, and for various reasons, audiences don’t seem to demand drama right now.
Having said all of this - it may be illogical, but I personally have no intent on singling out drama when making films, may it be directorially or as a producer. A good story is a good story and the film that speak to me is the film that speaks to me - if that’s a drama, then so be in. I’ve tried writing a traditional horror film because that’s more likely to get financed, and it just didn’t work creatively - it’s not the story I want to tell or the genre I want to work in, at least right now - and I know that’s the case for many more people, and that’s okay. It’s just about accepting that the process of getting a drama made, or seen, is a lot more difficult and truthfully - it might not even work in the market right now. That’s also okay as long as one tries to make their story and have their voice heard - if it doesn’t happen, something else will come.
So then, what are companies looking for now? Really, anything that isn’t drama, says Stephen Kelliher, managing director of sales and finance company Bankside Films. There’s been a resurgence in rom-coms lately, I think pioneered by Anyone But You, so that’s an idea. Sci-fi is great, if you can make it in budget (which is incredibly difficult), and anything suspense or thriller-like is generally very popular in my opinion. In fact, a lot of writers will shape their drama story around a specific thriller hook or build the narrative through a unique distinction, so that way the film does move away a little from the traditional drama structure, but it still explores the same beats and storylines while being a little more gripping for the average moviegoers, and for producers and financiers.
In terms of horror, yes, that genre is still very popular and you will probably not struggle to get interest, but I believe the horror market is about to be over-saturated, or even already is over-saturated. I have no statistic to prove this really, but just looking at the exponentially high number of horror films that continue to get made, I think it’s logical to assume that there are only so many version of the same story that can come out in a year (mostly when speaking about studio-developed horror) and so the format needs to begin to continuously evolve because audiences will get tired of the same story beats. It’s still a safe(r) bet of course, but I would be careful - yes, in general it’s a lot easier to get a horror film made, we also love horror stories and have a few of our own horror projects in development, but there’s also a lot more writers working in that genre.
Circling back to drama - and to wrap things up - my honest thoughts are that the genre is still probably the best medium to tell thematically dense stories of immense depth. Not to say that you can’t do that in any other genre, but the whole concept of a drama film is that it’s centered around the struggles and human experiences of the characters. My advice would be - if you want to make a drama, at least try and wrap it in a more sellable premise; add a unique hook, or a thriller element, or even a fantasy element, anything really that helps trick the industry and the audience into betting on your film. Then, make a great film, and the hope is no one will really care how much of it is traditional drama and how much of it is anything else.