How Many Pages Is a Screenplay? One Page per Minute, Give or Take
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A screenplay runs about one page per minute of screen time, so its length follows the running time you are writing toward: about 120 pages for a film of about two hours.
The rule is a ballpark: a page of dialogue plays faster than a page of action, and the finished film's length often bears little resemblance to the count.
This guide covers where the rule comes from, what moves the count without touching the story, and what one reader says the first ten pages of Jerry Maguire did for him.
Where one page, one minute comes from
The format exists partly to make this estimate possible.
Set in 12-point Courier with margins of at least one inch, a script in studio format transfers to the screen at roughly a page a minute. It is one reason studios expect the layout (Wikipedia, Screenplay, read 11 October 2026).
Wikipedia calls the rule widely contested, and the count often bears little resemblance to the final running time. A page of dialogue usually takes less screen time than a page of action, and the ratio depends on the writer's style.
Matt Lathrom (Breaking Rules, Script Slug, June 2024) says the same from the writer's side. A properly formatted script translates to roughly a minute per page, and it tells the crew what the shoot needs.
So the number to hold is about 120 pages for a film of about two hours, the figure the screenwriter John August gave in 2006 when he wrote that the one-page-per-minute rule doesn't hold up to much scrutiny: the conversion between paper and screen is rarely one-to-one, and a film's running time is estimated by timing the script, as a script supervisor does. The page count is the output; the story is the input.
What moves the count without touching the story
Format first. The one-page rule is tied to studio format: 12-point Courier and margins of at least one inch. Screenplay font gives the font.
Then the production marks. Lathrom's Draft-to-Draft (Script Slug, March 2026) notes that "CONTINUED", printed wherever dialogue breaks across a page, can add 11 percent to a count on its own.
Spec scripts leave it out and give the space back to the story; production drafts keep it for the crew, along with scene numbers and revision pages.
Paper is the last variable. American scripts go on US letter, 8.5 by 11 inches; British ones on A4, 210 by 297 millimetres, slightly taller and narrower (Wikipedia).
A4 pages print cropped on US paper, so some British writers format for letter when American producers will read the script.
An example past 130 pages
Garrett Tripp's reading of the opening of Jerry Maguire (Script Slug, March 2026) notes its 130-plus pages in passing, as a perk of being a writer-director. The first ten pages, he says, make him want to read to the end despite that count.
The first ten pages in Jerry Maguire
In those ten pages Cameron Crowe sets up the world, the lead, the supporting cast, the inciting incident, the theme and the antagonist, before Jerry is fired.
Most scripts Tripp reads open on the firing and lose steam, or take twenty pages for the same work.
The script also holds back characters and obstacles that will keep the story moving later. Tripp's rule: the first ten pages are everything that comes before everything falls apart, and the reader needs only what gets them up to speed.
The question Tripp ends on is the useful one: are you using every word in your first ten pages? The total follows from the running time; in Tripp's reading, the first ten pages are what make him want to read to the end.
Shorter on the page
Tripp's fifth basic (The Five Technical Basics, January 2026): say it shorter, say it faster, leave plenty of white space. Wikipedia notes the other side: the format's white space can reduce cultural specificity, which may call for more description and so more text.
The order of work from first scene to first readers is in how to write a screenplay.
Questions
How long is a screenplay? About 120 pages for a film of about two hours, by the one-page-per-minute rule. Wikipedia calls the rule a ballpark that often bears little resemblance to the finished film's length, and the running time is really estimated by timing the script.
Does the page count predict the film's running time? Only roughly. A page of dialogue usually plays in less time than a page of action, and the ratio depends on the writer's style, so the rule is contested even where it is expected.
What is "CONTINUED" and why does it add pages? A marker printed where dialogue or action runs across a page break in a production draft. Script Slug notes it alone can add 11 percent to a page count, which is one reason spec scripts leave it out.