With The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One continuing its stomp through the box office (grossing $647.3 million and counting) Twilight screenplay writer Melissa Rosenberg has become the highest grossing female screenplay writer with more than $2.56 billion in worldwide revenue.
She surpassed Alice In Wonderland writer Linda Woolverton’s previous total record of $2.39 billion. Woolverton’s take on Alice grossed just over a billion dollars in 2010 making it the ninth-highest grossing film of all time. The other substantial money-maker for Woolverton is The Lion King which she co-wrote in 1994 but thanks to a recent 3D rereleas has now grossed in excess of $945.6 million worldwide.
Adjusted for inflation though Woolverton’s earlier efforts would have brought her total up to $800m higher, not to mention that she’s uncredited for writing parts of Mulan which made $304.3 million in 1998.
There’s also the looming cloud of Disney’s Beauty And The Beast which is expected to receive a full theatrical re-release next year. If that does as well as The Lion King, Woolverton will be ahead again. But let’s not get too hasty, Breaking Dawn Part 1 hasn’t finished its theatrical run and the follow up will likely gross a similar amount, once again putting Rosenberg ahead.
But by scrying into the not-too-distant future we can see that Woolverton has a sequel to Alice lined up as well as the Sleeping Beauty spin off Maleficent both for Disney which are likely to reap rewards at the box office. Rosenberg meanwhile has young sci-fi drama Earthseed in the pipeline.
Either way, this contest is far from over.
