The short answer.
A correctly formatted screenplay page runs about one minute on screen, so a 100 page script makes a film of roughly an hour and forty minutes. Features usually run 90 to 120 pages, one-hour TV episodes about 50 to 65, and half-hour comedies about 25 to 40.
On this page
One page, about one minute
The rule of thumb holds because the format is fixed: 12 point Courier, standard margins, and the same positions for every element on every page. First Page sets 54 lines to a page. Change the font or squeeze the margins and the page stops meaning a minute, which is why readers notice.
Typical lengths
| Format | Usual length |
|---|---|
| Feature film | 90 to 120 pages |
| One-hour TV episode | 50 to 65 pages |
| Half-hour comedy | 25 to 40 pages |
| Short film | Up to about 30 pages |
These are ranges, not rules. A first feature from an unknown writer is easier to get read at 100 pages than at 130.
What makes a page run long or short
- Dialogue plays faster than it looks. Its column is narrow, so a page of quick exchanges can play in well under a minute.
- Action can play slower than it reads. One line like “they fight their way to the roof” can be minutes of screen time.
- Page breaks add up. Speeches break at sentences, and scenes don’t start in the last line of a page, so real pages carry a little white space.
Checking your page count
First Page shows the current page and the total in the status bar as you write, and its writing statistics track pages, scenes and words. To hear how a scene actually plays, Listen reads it aloud with a voice for every character.
Questions
- How many pages is a feature film script?
- Usually 90 to 120 pages. Comedies and horror tend toward the shorter end, and dramas and epics toward the longer.
- Is one page of a screenplay really one minute?
- On average, across a whole script. A page of fast dialogue can play in under a minute, and a page describing a chase can take several. The rule holds because standard formatting keeps the amount of text on a page consistent.
- Why does my screenplay have a different page count in different apps?
- Small differences in margins, line spacing and where pages break add up over a hundred pages. Software that formats to the standard positions keeps the count close to what a reader expects.
