Jessica Ryan

Copy. Composition. Master. Royalties. PRO. Sync.

Hollywood used to be run by folks that understood that a successful film, or character, or auteur is more than first weekend box office revenue — it is the most valuable asset ever, that is built over time and lasts for decades. Bob Evans was driven by taste and instinct, and used capital to back people, repeatedly — Coppola, Polanski, Friedkin — not just “big IP”. He understood that cultural value compounds around unique voices in ways financial models can’t predict.

These proof of concept short stories have emerged as something akin to the dizzying deals made for spec scripts decades ago. This sale also marks 12:01 Films and Verve’s 25th short story overall on their current run… Several of the stories have been adapted and published as novels through a Simon & Schuster label called 1201 Books. The real proof of life for these short stories will be the success of the movies made from them. About four of them are moving close to production starts.

The library-building approach—where studios indefinitely own and exploit creative works—belongs to the pre-digital era. It's a business model designed for scarcity, not abundance.

ATG Entertainment, which has a long-term lease on the Lyric, has collected more than $34 million in rent on Broadway from Cursed Child. In the year ending in February 2025, rent consumed nearly 11% of box office sales. To be sure, ATG has its own real estate expenses. In 2013, it paid $64 million for the lease to the Lyric, and later spent millions more on Cursed Child renovations.