Script Intelligence
The anatomy of a produced screenplay.
We measured 268 produced feature screenplays, 2000-2026. The median script runs 118 pages and 118.5 scenes, moves through 60 locations, and gives lines to 45 characters.
Published 12 August 2026 · Measured with engine 1.5 · Snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1 · Methodology
Key findings
- The median produced feature runs 118 pages; half of the cohort sits between 106 and 133.
- Scenes are short: the median script’s typical scene is 4 eighths of a page, roughly half a page of screen story at a time.
- The median script uses 60 distinct locations and plays 63% of its scenes indoors.
- 45 characters speak in the median feature, and the lead alone carries 27.5% of the dialogue.
- Dialogue outweighs action on the page: 1.2 lines of dialogue for every line of action on the median script.
How long a produced feature actually is.
The famous rule of thumb says a page a minute and a hundred and twenty pages. The measured cohort is tighter and shorter: half of all produced features land within 27 pages of each other, and three quarters come in under 133.
Most produced features land between 106 and 133 pages.
Page count, n=268 produced features 2000-2026 · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
The estimated runtime of the median script is 117 minutes, fitted from how its pages split between dialogue and action rather than the flat page-a-minute rule.
Scenes are shorter than writers think.
The median feature cuts 118.5 scene headings into its 118 pages. That arithmetic is the finding: the typical scene of the typical script runs 4 eighths of a page, and a scene that fills a full page is already in the long half.
The median script's typical scene is 4 eighths of a page long.
Median scene length per script, in eighths of a page; scripts above 12 eighths grouped at the right, n=268 produced features 2000-2026 · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
Scene counts spread far wider than page counts: 87 to 159 for the middle half.
Scene count, n=268 produced features 2000-2026 · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
Sixty places, mostly indoors, mostly daylight.
Location counts are where produced scripts defy the write-it-cheap advice: the median feature moves through 60 distinct places. Rooms within one building are counted as one place, so this is a measure of worlds, not slugline variants.
The median produced feature uses 60 distinct locations.
Unique locations, n=268 produced features 2000-2026 · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
63%
of scenes play interior on the median script
Middle half: 52% to 73%
61%
of time-stamped scenes play in daylight
Middle half: 48% to 74%
Big casts, concentrated voices.
45 characters speak in the median produced feature, far more than most craft advice imagines. The concentration is the counterweight: the single biggest part carries 27.5% of every spoken word, so the long cast list is mostly small voices around a dominant one.
45 characters speak in the median feature.
Speaking characters, n=268 produced features 2000-2026 · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
27.5%
of all dialogue belongs to the largest part on the median script
Middle half: 21% to 35.4%
1.2
lines of dialogue per line of action on the median script
Middle half: 0.9 to 1.6
The shape of each genre.
Genre averages hide less than expected: the bands overlap on almost every measure, which is itself the finding. Where they separate, they separate exactly where instinct says: animation runs shortest, dramas talk, action moves.
Action runs highest at 133 median pages; comedy lowest at 111.
n per genre shown beside each label · 2000-2026 · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
Dot: median. Band: middle 50%.
Romance (n=18), Sci-Fi (n=17), Fantasy (n=14), Crime (n=9) are measured but held back until they reach 20 scripts: publishing a median over a handful of titles invites more confidence than the sample can carry. They unlock as the corpus grows.
What this means for a working writer.
These are benchmarks, not rules. A script at the 90th percentile of length is not wrong, it is simply long, and it is worth knowing that before a reader points it out. The useful comparisons are the quartile bands: inside them you are unremarkable, outside them you should be outside them on purpose.
The clearest gap between received advice and measured practice is scene length. Produced screenwriting moves in half-page units. If your typical scene runs two pages, you are not breaking a rule, but you are pacing against the grain of 268 produced features, and it is worth being deliberate about why.
Methodology in brief
- Cohort: Produced feature screenplays released 2000-2026, measured from the file we hold, excluding parses the engine rated low confidence. 89 of 357 corpus scripts were excluded, each with a stated reason, listed in the snapshot manifest.
- Every measure is counted deterministically from the screenplay text by our measurement engine (v1.5): run it twice, get the same answer. No generated numbers, no scores, no user scripts.
- Figures are medians with interquartile ranges. Genre cells below n=20 are suppressed. Publicly available produced scripts skew toward acclaimed titles, so this cohort describes produced screenwriting as it survives publication, not a random sample of everything shot.
Use this research
The PreList Industry Intelligence (2026). "The Anatomy of a Produced Screenplay." n=268 produced feature screenplays, 2000-2026. https://www.theprelist.io/research/anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay
Licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse the figures, charts and dataset with attribution and a link back to this page. Snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1; every number above traces to it.