This AI startup says it can tell if a script will make a hit film
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- Quilty claims to predict a film’s box office success by analyzing scripts and assigning a 0‑100 score, according to founders Simon Horsman and Daniel Wood.
- Quilty incorrectly forecast that the script for ‘Christy’ would outperform the script for ‘Sinners’, a flop versus an Oscar‑winning blockbuster, showing a mismatch with real outcomes.
- Quilty uses a combination of existing AI tools to generate reports with estimated budgets, story beats, and character analyses, and charges $50 per analysis.
- Simon Horsman and Daniel Wood say they will keep humans in the loop and view the tool as a way to democratize script evaluation for writers, producers, financiers, and studios.
- Critics describe Quilty as a “jumbled mishmash of preexisting AI systems” that has not yet proven the taste or analytical ability to reliably identify future hits.
Why it matters: Filmmakers and investors who might rely on Quilty’s scores risk making decisions on inaccurate forecasts, while the startup’s credibility and its promise to democratize script assessment remain unproven.
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