Screenplay Page Count & Runtime Calculator

How it works

Runtime ≈ pages × minutes-per-page (0.9 dialogue-heavy, 1.0 balanced, 1.2 action-heavy; multi-camera sitcom scripts ≈ 0.5); words ≈ pages × 190; act breaks at ~25%, 50%, 75% of pages

The convention that one properly formatted screenplay page equals one minute of screen time exists because standard format — 12-point Courier, fixed margins, dialogue in a narrow column — makes pages a consistent unit of story. It drifts with style: dialogue-heavy pages play faster than they read, while a page of action lines can cover a two-minute set piece, and multi-camera sitcom scripts double-space dialogue so they run about two pages a minute. Readers, producers and schedulers all use the page count as a proxy for runtime and budget, so the target format sets a hard range: a spec feature over 120 pages or a network hour over 60 signals an inexperienced writer before anyone reads a word. The same page arithmetic locates the act breaks and, for production, the number of shooting days.

Worked example

A 112-page balanced feature script runs about 112 minutes — inside the 90–120 range — at roughly 21,000 words and 50 scenes. Act 1 should end near page 28, the midpoint at 56 and Act 2 at 84; an independent shoot at 3.5 pages a day would take about 32 days.

Frequently asked questions