Screenwriting : Average length of a spec script? by John Mansell Jr

Depends on genre, but 110 is probably the average sweet spot. Shorter for comedies and horror usually. I don't understand the 3 movies part. A screenplay is a stand alone. Sequels are decided if that first movie is successful, and then are usually not assigned to the writer of the first film.

Its Sci-fi and thanks for clearing the sequel thing up for me.

Like William said it depends on the genre; I would write what you got planned then if you really need to, cut and change some parts out if its too long.

Action will shorten it. Takes pages to shoot Action and so 85 Plus depending on how much there is. But you cleared that up with Si Fi. All the best with it. Tommy

Worry not! We had this topic only two months ago, it got 62 responses, I'll share the conclusions; It can be any length, preferably 90-120 pages but not over 125 unless you you want to go to 180. American Hustle script was 154 but you should be wary of going over 100. Remember, 110 is the new max so not many people will read your script if it's over 120. But do your script justice, if it needs to be 1000, then so be it! But be aware, no producer will look over a script much longer than 125. If you have a 140 page script, aim for 116, or even better aim for 90. But remember, scripts are usually 90-120, so try to aim for that. Unless it's a comedy of course, those should only be 90 pages and dramas 110 pages. So your best bet is between 90-110. Keep in mind, if the story is good enough, it can be 800-1500 pages and producers will happily read it. And if your script is only 87 pages, don't worry, the screen time can just be padded out. So aim for 100-110 pages with a max of 120 and never 140. Although watch out, if you write a 120 page script then all producers will lock it away and throw away the key, you need to be in the 70-80 range for maximum appeal. But of course those aren't the producers out there actively requesting to read 121 page scripts and will throw away anything under 75 pages. So aim for the 114 page average, you'll be okay, so that's 95 for Action-Adventure, up to 120 for drama. But be very wary of anything less than 100 pages, it will get an automatic pass. Remember 110 pages is the industry standard, 90 for comedies, any more than this and you won't be taken seriously as a professional. DO NOT SEND 1000 PAGE SCRIPTS! Surprisingly this isn't considered professional. Keep it to 110 pages max or it will get pushed to the back of the read pile. So that's minimum 90 pages and maximum 120 pages average if you want to get read, anything beyond 90 is pushing it, 120 is max and 110 is questionable. So keep it less then 110-120 pages unless it needs to be 128 pages which is also fine. Hope that clears things up.

Got it CJ. Unless you're writing a short, then all of the above is meaningless.

You buried the lead: "I have already decided to condense my 3 movies into 2." Why, oh why? Did someone suggest you do this? Have I missed a previous conversation? I'm just thinking about how difficult it would be to take a three book series I wrote and condense it to two - and I don't have anywhere near the length limitation with novels that I do with screenplays - and I'm getting a migraine. Do you have to condense them?

Alle has the best advice I've seen on a site like this. Great advice for every writer. As far as what prod co and development are looking for now, 85 to 90 pages is the sweet spot.

80 to 110 max, but a producer gave me excellent advice..."Get rid of the orphans." Comb through your script and find a way to rewrite descriptions, actions and dialogue that have an orphan word extending your page count.... Saved me three pages in one script! ; )

The first thing that anyone asks me when I pitch is "how long is it" They get really interested when I say 96 pages. The folks I've talked to don't want longer scripts on a spec.

If you are an unknown with no previous credits, I highly suggest not going over 120 and, if possible, targeting 110 for a drama or thriller and 100 for a comedy or horror script. I know many managers and producers in this town who take the top script off their pile and check the back page first to check for length. If it's above 120, it immediately goes to the bottom of the pile. Fair or not, perception is a big thing in this business. If they know you're a first timer and they see 140 pages, the first thought is that you haven't learned how to keep things tight.

I guess if I sit back and read all the advice on this site I'm faced with one conclusion. Write because I love writing. So I'm back to writing 3 movies. I understand I won't see my story on the big screen, but hey you never know right. Just the thought of not finishing the story that I wrote makes me sick to my stomach. It's my baby, I've watched and helped it grow so why not finish it? If nothing else I'll finish it so my sanity. I've carried this story around in my head for the last 10 years, time to finish what I've started.

Hi, Alle! 'Never heard the term "Widows" yet... Will you help me understand the lingo better? Are "orphans" and "Widows" the same thing? I was referring to single words left on a line that extend the page count. In one edit, I went back and did very little editing to remove those single word lines to make all fit on about two lines of description, etc. "Orphans," once removed, deleted three pages from a bloated page count, which in my mind gives more room for story. Kudos to everyone for such a supportive environment! It thrills my heart!

Widows and orphans, sadly, go hand in hand. The "Widow" is the part of the sentence at the bottom of the page, and the "orphan" is the final few words at the top of the next page.

Holy crap, I got it backwards. Orphan is the paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page/column. Widow is the paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page

Most screenwriting software will take care of that for you.

Alle, you are correct. My answer was too glib.

As I've said before, working to reduce page count has helped me improve my prose, dialogue, scenes, and story more than anything else. It's a very healthy thing to keep working at.

I just look at what produced films run in terms of minutes and aim to write close to that many pages - nowadays comedies and horrors usually run 90 minutes, proper thrillers 105 and dramas 120. An 80-page script to me seems amateurish, especially since my first scripts were 80 pages long because I didn't know how to develop elements of a story.

Is there a lot of Action in the Scriot?

I shoot for 90 to 100 and see what happens. Once done with the first draft the length can be adjusted during the rewrites.

Everybody I know seems to think it's 105 pages max. Anything else is too long. Also, nothing under 90 pages as that is too insubstantial for a movie. Forget what actual produced movies run to as there are a ton of other factors involved beyond the writing.

Dialogue is also a factor in length. I've adapted two of the books I've written into screenplays: one is 83K words but adapted to about 125 pages, while the other is 59K and 145 pages because of the dialogue. And yes, both were stripped down.

Depends on the producers. Some of the newer ones are saying 110 max. Just write it. You can go back and slash it during rewrite.

Based on my experience writing for studios and indies, new writers should shoot for between 90 and 110 pages. Anything shorter, or longer, will dub the writer as amateurish and usually warrants a pass on the script.

Hit it on the nail Donald. T

There are some good posts on this topic at Go Into The Story. I agree with Michael that your first draft should be your "barf" draft where you get everything you can down on paper. Most writers advise putting it aside for a week or two and working on something else, then going back to re-read with fresh eyes and an eye to beginning your first revision. My impression is that if you've written a good story no one will toss it into the circular file just because it's closer to 120 than 110, but you never know.

Late to the party here. Used to be around 120 pages - figuring 45 seconds to a minute of screen time pere page (rough estimate since you can write "and now - they fight the battle of Gettysburg" - and who knows how that goes?), but now - the tighter the better. I notice that Alle wrote that you shouldn't set an artificial limit and take as long as it takes to tell the story you want to tell. She's right - on a first draft only. Throw in everything and the kitchen sink. Then edit the hell out of it and pare it down as close to the 100-110 page count as you can get. Lower then 100 if you can do it without sacrificing bone and muscle to do so - but get rid of every bit of fat. You want the darft that goes out to potential buyers (or agents for that matter) to be as tight as you can get it. Bear in mind - there are readers who will look at the final page - the number on it - and having read not a word of your script - say "It's too long" and not read it. I've seen it happen. Had a producer on one of mine read it - love it - then tell me to cut it to 115. When I did that - he said now get it down to 105. Sometimes it's a bitch. Other times - I've literally pulled up Final Draft and gone throug the entire script - without cutting a single scene in its entirety - and using a scalpel - trim single lines of dialogue or description - a word here and there, and cut 12 pages from a screenplay - and you would never know what was gone. Nothinh essential. All small surgical deletions. They add up. You'd be shocked. And the page count is down and it reads like a locomotive and you've sacrificed nothing.

I was just wondering after 4 years how did this turn out for you?

I turned an 83K-word novel of mine into a 125-page script and a 60K-word one into a 145-page script. I also have a 93-page one where I had started running out of jokes. Suffice to say that it's a metric that makes no sense.

My mantra is the first draft of anything is never the end result, so my advice would be to just get it written and then edit it. Remember that in Final Draft and other screenwriting programmes, the rule of thumb is one minute per page, so your 120 pages would be two hours worth and just seen someone else has said virtually the same things, so sorry to repeat.

I recommend my students to 'target' a 100 page count with a 10% variance. But remember too that an identical script written by different software well be of a different final page count (it has to do with line spacing & stuff).

Also the template you use in final draft will change it a page or so. There are a number in final draft. - all accepted