Screenplay Script Time Format Calculator

Script length and runtime

There's an old Hollywood rule of thumb that one page equals one minute of screen time, and it holds up as long as the screenplay sticks to Courier 12pt with the standard margins that Final Draft or Celtx enforce. Most feature films land somewhere between 90 and 120 pages, which works out to roughly the same range in minutes. Comedies packed with dialogue tend to run faster, closer to 0.8 min/page. Push the other way with action, sluglines and stage directions and you can hit 1.2 min/page.

Applications

Screenwriters lean on it to gauge runtime while a draft is still rough. Producers use it to sketch out budgets and shooting schedules, and script readers at studios and festivals do the same when they need a quick sense of length. Both Final Draft and Celtx show page counts that line up with the convention.

FAQ

Why Courier 12pt? Between the monospaced font and the fixed margins, every page ends up holding about the same amount of material, so one page lands near one minute of screen time over and over.

Does the rule work for TV? More or less. Half-hour sitcoms come in around 22 to 30 pages and hour-long dramas around 50 to 60, and the pacing factors aren't far off either.

What is the dialogue factor? It's a multiplier from 0.8 to 1.2 that nudges the base estimate up or down depending on how dialogue-heavy or action-heavy the script is.