But we can estimate that the page-to-minute ratio is a good ballpark barometer.īut the reason the rule exists in many people's eyes goes beyond screen time.
So we know that 119 pages isn't always going to translate to an hour and fifty-nine-minute movie. However, other pages have a lot of action description which, when produced onscreen, only account for quick seconds of screen time. Some pages are all dialogue, which can take up to a minute for actors to dictate. The page-to-minute concept is a good guideline to follow, but clearly not an exact science. Whoever concocted this notion was both onto something and over-generalizing. The general consensus is that one page is equivalent to one minute of screen time. Who cares if you're at 129 pages instead of 119? Well, Hollywood cares - at least when you're starting out. Most screenwriters can agree that this rule, guideline, directive, or whatever you want to call it, is annoying. But why is this rule so important and are there any screenwriting hacks that can help you adhere to this stringent rule without you having to cut down or kill some of your screenplay darlings? Why the Rule Exists
The general rule states that your screenplay should be between 90 to 130 pages long - 80 pages is too few and anything over 129 pages is too much. For screenwriters, one of the most tedious - yet important - directives is the screenplay page count. Some rules we just have to live by in life.