As a screenwriter, working out the crux of your story is a daunting enough task, but let’s rewind even further. How do you determine what genre to work in? After all, this is a crucial component to creating material that Hollywood wants to buy, right? So, how do you know which genres have the best chance of selling? There isn’t some magical way to access this mysterious information, is there? Surely, the film gods keep such knowledge under lock and key!

Actually, there’s good news: this info not only exists, it’s readily accessible if you know where to look. (Drum roll, please.) Ask a sales agent. They deal with film buyers around the world every day and can pass on valuable insights regarding what’s selling and what’s not. You can approach sales agents at film seminars and conferences, during festivals or markets like AFM (American Film Market), via personal contacts, or if all else fails, by cold calling with a plea for guidance. Here’s a fairly comprehensive list of Hollywood sales agents.

Below are six genres that, according to a prominent sales agent I know, have consistently attracted buyers, and with no signs of abating.

Gender-Neutral Action

Action films have a long, battle-tested history of selling well around the world, regardless of territory. Why? Because unlike drama or comedy, action faces no language or cultural barriers. While something that’s funny in the US may not translate in India or Spain or Japan, explosions and car chases elicit the same thrill everywhere. Gender-neutral simply means the story is broad enough to attract both men and women. Think Fast & Furious or Terminator. Oh, and avoid straight martial arts stuff, which is too oversaturated in the market due to its lower budget requirements.

Female-Driven Thriller

The woman-in-peril sub-genre of thriller has generated reliable interest in the television and home entertainment markets thanks to female audiences hungry for strong, relatable women overcoming insurmountable odds, often against an otherwise dominant masculine figure. Enough or Sleeping with the Enemy are prime examples. Lifetime really popularized this type of story with a steady stream of weekly movies that have proven to be ratings gold.

Kids & Animals

W.C. Fields gave birth to the infamous Hollywood trope, “Never work with children or animals.” But as a screenwriter, live-action family films with an adventurous group of young tots or a couple of frisky felines could be a bullseye with a distributor. especially if the animals talk. (Yes, I’m serious.) Think The Sandlot or the Air Bud franchise. It’s the type of G-rated fun parents can show their seven-year-olds without having to do “earmuffs” every five minutes. Moreover, parents tend to spend the extra dough buying rather than renting these films because they expect to watch them over and over.

Disaster

Disaster films have been exciting audiences for decades, reaching a high-water mark in the 1970s with titles like Earthquake and The Towering Inferno. Such stories can be more global in nature like 2012 or local like Dante’s Peak. They can be natural like The Day After Tomorrow or supernatural like Independence Day. And they can skew more dramatic like Deep Impact or be action-oriented like Armageddon. The common thread is simply a larger-than-life existential threat to a defined population.

Female POV Rom-Com

Romantic comedies are perhaps the most successful form of comedy film globally since relationships are universal, making the storylines (and laughs) more accessible to foreign audiences. However, it’s critical to maintain a female point-of-view for greater marketability since the ladies drive this genre’s box office. Think Pretty Woman or How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Buyers point to exit polling data that show women are more likely to invest their time in a story with a relatable protagonist. In other words, it’s something that could happen to them!

Faith-Based

Many distributors note that this heavily overlooked genre is among the most profitable due to the fact that such films have rabidly loyal audiences, little marketplace competition, and can often be produced for extremely low budgets. Films like Fireproof and God’s Not Dead generated gross revenues that multiplied their production costs many times over and, in the latter’s case, spawned a couple of sequels that were equally successful. Such films don’t have to be overtly religious as long as they’re centered around a moral or message rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic.

BIO – Mark Heidelberger co-founded Beverly Hills-based Treasure Entertainment in 2000, serving as a film executive, producer, and literary manager until 2011 before going freelance. He has produced music videos for artists Janelle Monae, Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj and John Michael Montgomery as well as commercials for Lamborghini, Con Air and Cox Media, to name a few. Film and TV credits include Harsh Times, Comfort, Ninja Apocalypse, It’s Not You It’s Me, Pray for Rain and Hallmark Channel’s You’ve Got a Friend. Often times, he also performs ghostwriting services on screenplays in addition to his producing duties. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America. He holds a BA in Film Studies from UCSB and an MFA in Producing from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, and Television.