Script Intelligence · Benchmark
How many scenes are in a screenplay?
The median produced feature cuts 118.5 scenes into 118 pages, which is the real finding: the typical scene runs 4 eighths of a page, about half a page of story at a time.
Published 12 August 2026 · n=268 produced features, 2000-2026 · Snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1 · Methodology
Scene counts spread widely: 87 to 159 for the middle half.
Scene count, n=268 produced features · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
The half-page scene is the norm.
Scene length is measured the way productions measure it, in eighths of a page. A scene that fills a whole page is already in the long half of produced screenwriting.
The median script's typical scene is 4 eighths of a page.
Median scene length per script, in eighths of a page; scripts above 12 eighths grouped at the right · n=268 · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1
118.5scenes
In the median produced feature
Middle half: 87 to 159
4eighths
The typical scene of the typical script
Roughly half a page before the story moves
Scene counts by genre.
Action cuts fastest and carries the most scene headings; dialogue-led genres hold their scenes longer and need fewer of them.
Median scene count by genre.
n per genre beside each label · snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1 · dot: median, band: middle 50%
If your typical scene runs two pages or more, you are pacing against the grain of 268 produced features. Not wrong, but worth being deliberate about.
About these figures
Every number is counted deterministically from the screenplay text of 268 professionally produced features, released 2000-2026. Figures are medians with the middle 50% stated; genre cells below n=20 are counted but not described. Benchmarks describe the cohort, not rules: the full caveats live in the methodology. These figures come from The Anatomy of a Produced Screenplay, where they sit in context.
Use this research
The PreList Industry Intelligence (2026). "Scene Count and Scene Length: Produced Feature Benchmarks." n=268 produced feature screenplays, 2000-2026. https://www.theprelist.io/research/screenplay-scenes
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.