Screenwriting : Screenwriting Insight by Shekhar Kumar

The 1980s fast-paced drama-comedy show "Moonlighting" routinely ran about 2 pages a minute. Sometimes they resorted to running the film a few percent faster than 24 frames per second, just to get the show within 48 minutes of run time. So no matter what others tell you, fast-paced shows with a lot of dialogue and not a lot of fights and chase scenes are going to run faster than a page a minute.

This 38 second span of dialogue from "The Murder is in the Mail" (1985) episode of "Moonlighting" is faster than a page a minute. Classic!

David: We're looking for a man with a mole on his nose.

Security : A mole on his nose ?

Maddie: A mole on his nose.

Security: What kind of clothes?

Maddie: [to David] What kind of clothes?

David: What kind of clothes do you suppose?

Security: What kind of clothes do I suppose would be worn by a man with a mole on his nose? Who knows?

David : Did I happen to mention, did I bother to disclose, that this man that we're seeking with the mole on his nose? I'm not sure of his clothes or anything else, except he's Chinese, a big clue by itself.

Maddie: How do you do that?

David : Gotta read a lot of Dr. Seuss.

Security: I'm sorry to say, I'm sad to report, I haven't seen anyone at all of that sort. Not a man who's Chinese with a mole on his nose with some kind of clothes that you can't suppose. So get away from this door and get out of this place, or I'll have to hurt you - put my foot in your face.

Here is a clip of this dialogue:

https://youtu.be/lZ4HHCi2njE

Not necessarily. There are so many variables from page to page regarding the rhythm and flow of the storyline that the one page = one min of screen time is inaccurate but is helpful in 'ball parking' a new script in its initial budgetary guess.

I second Hannah's comment(s).

The 1 page equals 1 minute rule is both true but also fallible. It doesn't quite account for faster or slower pacing.

Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network infamously ran 160 pages but produced 2 hours of screen time. Not to mention Blade Runner 2049 ran 108 pages but produced 2.75 hours of screen time.

Christopher Nolan smartly wrote The Dark Knight in tight concise formatting to make sure its 140 pages equaled the film's 2.5 hour screen time.

The one page equals one minute of screen time is just a theory that some people go by.

I know that mine don't and I have adjusted my page counts accordingly.

Great thoughts by C J Walley, Marty Howe, Dan Guardino, B A Mason, Doug Nelson, Hannah Miyamoto

It’s more of a rough guide. 1 page of action can last longer than a minute and a page of quick back and forth dialogue will be less. Overall it tends to balance out.

On average. No one page does. But over 100 minutes it is pretty close. In Ben Hur there is a single line that read “11 minute chariot race goes here”.

But for most of us, that is true.

I have no opinion.

But that's how it supposedly averages out, and that's what production companies that buy your script use in their decisions.

And I have been hired by companies to rewrite screenplays to get them down to a length that they desire for filming.

My opinion doesn't matter.