The fastest way to waste a quarter is pitching companies that were never going to read you. The fastest way to save one is knowing which doors just opened.
A first-look deal, an overall deal, or a new head of development is not just trade news. It is a mandate that now needs feeding. The company that signed it has promised a studio partner a pipeline of projects, or hired an executive whose entire job is finding them. For a window measured in months, that company reads harder, replies faster and develops more.
Over the past month, mid-June through July 17, our pipeline logged 169 of these buying-power signals across 131 companies. We read all of them, threw out roughly a hundred that were noise (talent-agency signings and corporate hires dressed up as deals), and checked every survivor against the original trade coverage. What is left: 26 real doors, arranged the way a working writer or producer should actually read them, by which rung of the ladder you can realistically reach this quarter.
How to read the ladder
Every door below carries a Door Score from 1 to 5. A 4 or 5 means a great cold query or package can land. A 1 or 2 means watch the mandate and route through the rungs below it. The score is our editorial judgment from the evidence: the company's size, what it says it wants in writing, and whether it demonstrably works with new writers. Nothing here is an invitation to submit, and submission policies change weekly, so verify a company's current process before sending anything.
One pattern to hold in your head while you read: co-production is now the most common deal structure in our coverage, with 776 signals in the last 30 days against 703 straight acquisitions. The market's default question is no longer "can we buy this." It is "who do we build this with." That is exactly why new first-look holders matter: they are the ones doing the building.
Rung 4: the majors' new mandates
Read these as weather, then aim one rung down. 20th Television signed Quinta Brunson away from Warner Bros. TV and added a first-look with Vox Media Studios in the same month, which tells you creator-driven comedy and journalism-sourced IP are both in the Disney TV mandate. Netflix reorganized two doors in one week: Ryan Coogler's Proximity Media moved its exclusive TV deal over from Disney, and Hannah Minghella took over Netflix Animation. Universal Global TV opened its door through Viola Davis and Julius Tennon's JuVee. Warner Bros. Pictures put fresh specialty money behind Oddfellows alongside New Line and Clockwork.
And quietly, two brand-new acquisition desks appeared: Shaun Alperin became acquisitions VP at Peacock, and Agustina Dompé was upped to director of acquisitions at Disney Latin America. New acquisitions executives need wins in their first year. If you are a producer with a finished or nearly finished film, those two hires matter more to you than any headline deal on this page.
Rung 3: bridge banners with fresh studio money
These companies exist to feed their studio deal. Pitch the banner, never the studio. Oddfellows, the Vancouver outfit behind Backrooms, Longlegs and The Monkey, now has Warner money behind elevated horror and internet-native IP (we broke down that whole pipeline in our horror internet-IP report). JuVee's first Universal project is Pawn, a crime-laced romantic drama from a Kennedy Ryan short story with Chantelle M. Wells writing, which tells you exactly what "purpose plus commercial hook" means to them. Point Grey's new pact with producer Alexandria McAtee explicitly covers comedy features and TV "with emerging filmmakers and talent," a phrase you should take personally.
The Wonder Project, Jon Erwin's faith-and-values studio, is scaling on every axis at once: a Prime Video first-look and subscription channel, plus a theatrical co-production with Angel Studios (Young Washington, in theaters this month). Vox Media Studios will adapt New York Magazine journalism and Vox podcasts for 20th Television. BET Studios extended Ms Pat, confirming its model of writer-performers who develop and star in their own material. And Erik Feig's fandom-first outfit The Arena hired four executives to build franchises from gaming, anime and event IP.
Rung 2: the companies that just hired someone whose job is to say yes
A new development chief means a fresh slate and an open inbox for professional queries. Canada is the story of the month: Duo Productions named Émilie Fanning director of scripted development and says in plain language it builds series "through strong creative partnerships with writers." Bell Media and Blink49 signed a first-look with showrunner Celeste Parr's Punctuation Media at Banff, with the romantic thriller We Never Happened first up. Muse Entertainment took a first-look on The Walrus's unpublished reporting for documentary and unscripted adaptations. Bright North promoted a development VP to feed Crave's reality, true-crime and sports-doc pipeline.
Internationally, the same pattern: Expectation (the Clarkson's Farm producer) brought in Katrina Grant to run development on talent-led unscripted. Estudios RCN is expanding Colombian streaming originals just as Netflix installed a director of content for Colombia. Israel's Sipur put Amazon MGM's Ludovic Attal in the president's chair. And ITV's digital arm Zoo 55 added Channel 4's Diane Glynn to turn library IP into YouTube-first formats.
Rung 1: the direct doors
Small teams, stated appetites, and mandates young enough that your email is not lost in a pile. Webtoon Productions and Espotlight are adapting Spanish-language Wattpad titles under a first-look pact with Sony Pictures International co-producing, and they need adapters as much as they need IP. Grace Games, newly signed with CAA, is building prestige narrative games around iconic artists, a lane where screenwriters barely compete. The Jim Henson Company promoted working artist John Tartaglia into creative leadership. The creator-economy packagers (Towerhouse, V10, Gunpowder & Sky) are converting YouTube brands into television. Psyop and Golden Wolf are converting a global animation service business into an IP owner. And three mid-size international producers (Portugal's SPI, Sphere Media and Various Artists Limited) all restructured for international scripted growth in the same week.
Doors that look open but are not
Honesty is the point of this report, so: Marvel develops exclusively in-house and does not acquire outside scripts, whatever the headlines imply. Proximity Media's Netflix pact is exclusive and internally driven; track it as a demand signal, not a door. Talent-agency signings are talent news, not buyer news; we filtered roughly a hundred such rows out of the 131 companies. And leadership hires at VFX service houses are corporate news, with Psyop the one exception because it is explicitly converting to IP ownership.
If you are pitching this quarter
Three things to do with this list. First, the eight doors scored 4 out of 5 (The Wonder Project, Duo, Blink49, Muse, Bright North, Estudios RCN, Webtoon with Espotlight, and Grace Games) are the ones where a professional cold query is a rational use of your week. Second, match material to mandate literally: Blink49 said romantic thriller, Muse said reported nonfiction, Grace Games said narrative with musical DNA. The mandate language is the brief. Third, move inside the window. New deals and new development chiefs read hardest in their first months, while the slate is still empty and the pressure is freshest.
This is the July edition of a running series. The June open-door report covered 12 production companies and doors we were watching then, and our live Who's Buying Now board tracks buyer activity between editions.
Inside ScriptMatch, this ladder goes one level deeper: the named development contact behind each of these doors (drawn from the 1,142 decision-makers our pipeline identified this month alone), the full wish-list language for every company, and which of these mandates touch your script's own matches. Run a free match to see where your material fits.
FAQ
What is a first-look deal in film and TV?
A first-look deal gives a studio or streamer the first right to consider (and fund) projects a production company or creator develops, in exchange for overhead or fees. For writers, the practical meaning is that the company holding the deal has guaranteed buyer access and now needs a pipeline of material to feed it.
Can a screenwriter pitch a company that has a first-look deal?
Usually not the studio side, but often the banner side. The production company holding the deal sources projects the studio will see, so a well-targeted query or repped submission to that company is the realistic route. That is the entire logic of this ladder: the higher rungs are reached through the lower ones.
Do any of these companies accept unsolicited screenplays?
Almost none, and that is standard across the industry for legal reasons. A high Door Score here does not mean open submissions; it means the company is small enough, hungry enough and specific enough about what it wants that a professional query, a rep submission or the right package can realistically land. Always check a company's current submission policy before sending material.
How were these 26 companies chosen?
Our intelligence pipeline monitors industry trade coverage continuously and logged 169 first-look, overall-deal and development-mandate signals across 131 companies between mid-June and July 17, 2026. We removed signals that do not open a door for writers (agency signings, corporate appointments, service-business news), then verified each remaining entry against the original trade reporting before publication. The Door Scores are ScriptMatch editorial judgments based on that evidence.
These are research starting points drawn from trade coverage, not offers or solicitations. Submission policies change; always verify a company's current process before sending material. ScriptMatch provides researched intelligence, not introductions.