It was just a couple years ago that Hollywood declared the "Death of the Spec Script" in numerous trades and magazines. And with good reason, compare the 1990s (for example, 1995, 173 specs were sold) to what was a bleak 2010, when only 55 (later revised to 65) were reported. So indeed the outlook was not bright. But with the economy and the 2008 crash, all industries faultered including the spec market; nothing was immune. The collapse had more to do with economics than the Internet or email, or even the desire of studios to make good movies or quality screenwriting. Here's the top 10 sales for spec made movies that we're aware of:

1. DEJA VU - $5M, Bill Marsilii, Terry Rossio
2. THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT - $4M, Shane Black
3. PANIC ROOM -“ $4M, David Koepp
4. TALLADEGA NIGHTS - $4M, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay
5. EUROTRIP -“ $4M, Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer
6. BASIC INSTINCT - $3M, Joe Eszterhas
7. MEDICINE MAN - $3M, Tom Schulman, Sally Robinson
8. THE PINK PANTHER - $3M, Steven Martin
9. MOZART AND THE WHALE - $2.75M, Ronald Bass
10. A KNIGHT'S TALE - $2.5M, Brian Helgeland

Final comment, next time a screenwriting guru or professional tells you it takes a "great" script to make it big... go over this list with them! There's a couple of good scripts (possibly one great one) and maybe a nice one or two, bout it!