A feature screenplay runs about 90 to 120 pages, and a first script is safer at 90 to 110. TV scripts are shorter: roughly 30 to 35 pages for a single-camera half-hour and 44 to 65 for an hour-long drama, depending on where it airs. Contests and fellowships can set their own limits, so the rules page beats any rule of thumb.
That is the short answer. The rest of this page covers where those numbers come from, why they wobble, and what to do when your draft lands outside them.
How many pages should a feature screenplay be?
Final Draft’s writing blog (a September 2025 post by Edwin Cannistraci) says the average feature runs between 90 and 120 pages, then narrows it for newer writers: think 90 to 110. It adds that some indie thrillers have been made from 80 to 90 page scripts, but it still advises against going shorter than that for a feature. StudioBinder agrees on the middle (90 to 120) and says a spec can sometimes get away with as few as 80 pages but should never go past 120.
Older advice points the same way. In a 2003 post, John August wrote that the usual guideline is 120 pages, that most produced scripts fall between 110 and 120, and that Warner Bros. had written a 120-page cap for feature screenplays into its screenwriter contract. That is one writer describing one studio’s contract more than twenty years ago, so read it as background, not law. It does explain where the 120 comes from.
Why does anyone care? Because page count is a budget signal. Final Draft’s article says producers and financiers use it to estimate cost and shooting time, and that established writer-directors and big franchise installments get exceptions. Unproduced writers mostly do not. A 140-page script from an unknown name can look expensive and overwritten before the reader reaches the first scene heading.
Why one page equals one minute, and where that breaks
The rule under all of this is simple: one properly formatted page is about one minute of screen time. Final Draft states it flatly. StudioBinder calls it the standard measuring stick but not a hard and fast rule. The wobble comes from what is on the page. A page of pure dialogue usually plays in under a minute, and a page of action and description usually runs over.
So two 110-page scripts can land at very different running times. If you want a real number instead of a rule, StudioBinder describes the method: read the script aloud at the pace you imagine on screen, with a stopwatch, and mark the time scene by scene. Do it once on a draft you are about to send out. The scenes that drag will announce themselves.
The rule also only works on a standard layout. The Academy’s Nicholl requirements ask for 12-point Courier in standard industry format, and a script with squeezed margins or a smaller font is giving everyone a false page count.
How many pages is a TV pilot or episode?
TV numbers are looser than film numbers, and the guides do not all agree. StudioBinder’s recap, which is the author’s guidance and not an official standard, gives these ranges:
| Format | Typical pages |
|---|---|
| Half-hour, single-camera | 30 to 35 |
| Half-hour, multi-camera | 40 to 45 |
| Half-hour, animated | 44 to 50 |
| One-hour, network drama | 44 to 45 |
| One-hour, premium cable or streaming drama | 55 to 65 |
The same article offers two examples: a 44-page Hannibal script that ran about an hour with commercials, and a 60-page Game of Thrones pilot that ran about an hour and two minutes. Multi-camera and animated scripts run long on the page because they carry more dialogue and gags per minute. The animated range works out to roughly two pages per minute, based on a 44-page Simpsons script that aired at about 23 minutes.
If you are writing a spec for a specific show, fellowship or lab, match what they ask for and ignore the table. For the craft differences between the two forms, see Is Your Script TV-Ready? You can read StudioBinder’s full breakdown in How Long Is a TV Show Script.
What contests and fellowships allow
Hard limits are the most useful numbers on this page, because they are the ones that can get a script rejected. The Academy’s Nicholl Fellowships page was still showing the 2024 rules when it was checked on October 31, 2026. Those rules say a script can be no shorter than 70 pages and no longer than 160, with a suggested length of 80 to 125 pages, and that scripts over 125 may have their length counted against them. The page also asks for a PDF, English, 12-point Courier, and no AI-generated dialogue, characters or scene description.
Look at the gap between the limits (70 to 160) and the suggestion (80 to 125). A script can pass the rules and still be judged on length, which makes “fits the rules” and “fits the advice” two separate tests. Aim for the second one. Check the current cycle’s rules before you rely on any number here.
Short film scripts have no single standard beyond the same one-page-per-minute rule: a ten-minute short is about ten pages. Competitions set their own caps and those caps differ, so find the page limit on the rules page before you cut or pad anything.
What to do if your draft is too long or too short
Cut by scene, not by layout. Shrinking the margins or the font makes the pages look shorter and the script read longer, and it breaks the very measurement the page count depends on. Instead, write a one-line summary of every scene and look for two scenes that deliver the same beat. One of them usually goes.
After that, go after the action paragraphs. A block of description that takes five lines to say what the camera sees in one is the cheapest cut you will find. If you are under 90 pages, check the middle before you pad anything: a short script is often a script whose second act has one complication where it needs three. If you are still working out the draft itself, turning a script idea into a full screenplay in 30 days is a useful planning read.
Screenplay page count questions
How many pages is a 90-minute movie script?
About 90, by the one-page-per-minute rule. Action-heavy pages push the running time up and dialogue-heavy pages bring it down, so the real figure can drift either way.
Is 120 pages too long for a first screenplay?
It is the ceiling most guides name for a spec script. Final Draft advises 90 to 110 for newer writers, so treat 120 as the upper limit and not the target.
Is 150 pages too long for a screenplay?
For a spec from an unknown writer, yes, by every source above. The Nicholl hard limit is 160 pages, but it suggests 80 to 125 and warns that longer scripts may be judged on length.
Can a feature screenplay be under 90 pages?
Sometimes. Final Draft says 80 to 90 page scripts have been produced as indie thrillers, and StudioBinder says 80 pages can pass with festivals or gatekeepers. Both treat 90 and up as the safer length for a feature.
The number is a stand-in for a question the reader is asking the whole time: is this going to waste my afternoon? Pages are just the easiest way to answer it before they have read a word.
