How Long Is a Screenplay?

Page count is the first thing a reader looks at, often before the title. This guide covers how many pages a feature film, a TV episode and a short film should run, why one page roughly equals one minute of screen time, and what to do when your script runs long.

Updated September 2026 · 6 min read

1. Quick answer

These are the ranges readers, agents and producers expect. Nobody will reject a great script for being three pages over, but a first script that runs 140 pages tells a reader the writer hasn't learned to cut yet.

2. One page, one minute

The industry estimates screen time from page count: one page is about one minute. A 100-page script should make a film of roughly 100 minutes.

The rule only works because every screenplay looks the same: a 12-point Courier font, a 1.5-inch left margin, fixed indents for dialogue, and about 55 lines on a page. Change any of those and a page no longer means a minute. That's why the format is so strict. (Our screenplay format guide covers every setting.)

Production takes page count even further. When a film is scheduled, each scene is measured in eighths of a page, and the schedule is built on how many pages the crew can shoot in a day.

3. Feature films

Most feature screenplays land between 90 and 120 pages. Within that range, genre matters:

• Comedy, horror, animation: often closer to 90 to 105 pages. Pace is everything.
• Drama, thriller, action: commonly 100 to 120 pages.
• Epics and prestige dramas: can run longer, but usually from writers with a track record.

If you're writing a spec script, one written on your own to sell or get noticed, aiming for about 95 to 115 pages is the safe target.

4. TV episodes

TV scripts are shaped by running time and, on network television, by commercial breaks.

• One-hour dramas run about 50 to 65 pages. Network scripts are divided into acts that end before each ad break; streaming scripts often drop the act labels but land in the same range.
• Half-hour single-camera comedies (shot like a film) run about 25 to 35 pages.
• Multi-camera sitcoms (shot on a stage, often with an audience) run longer on paper, about 45 to 55 pages, because their dialogue is double-spaced by convention.

5. Short films

For shorts, the one-page-one-minute rule is followed closely: a 10-minute film is about a 10-page script. Many festivals favour shorts under 15 minutes, so 5 to 15 pages is where most short scripts sit.

6. When the rule breaks

One page per minute is an average, not a law:

• Action runs long. "They fight across the rooftop" is one line on the page and can be three minutes on screen.
• Fast dialogue runs short. A page of rapid back-and-forth can play in forty seconds.
• Silence and montage can stretch a short page into a long moment.

Over a full script these differences tend to even out, which is why the rule works for estimating a film's length, even if it's wrong about individual pages.

7. How to cut pages

Don't shrink the margins or the font to hit a page count. Readers notice immediately, and it breaks the page-per-minute estimate. Cut the writing instead:

• Trim action lines. Keep only what we see and hear; cut the explanations.
• Enter scenes late, leave early. Most scenes can lose their first and last few lines.
• Fix widows. A single word hanging on its own line costs a full line. Rewording it saves space across a whole script.
• Question every scene. If the story works without it, it goes.

8. Frequently asked questions