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Publication history

Archived release

Initial publication

anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1

268 produced feature scripts.

This is an earlier release. Read the current corrected study.

Published
13/08/2026
Cohort
268 features
Measurement engine
1.5

Inspect the full manifest and checksums (JSON)

Published figures

The original aggregate table, with each measure’s eligible sample. Missing values are unavailable, not zero. The package includes genre and decade tables and code to reproduce them.

MeasureEligible nMedianMiddle half
pages268118106 to 133
scenes268118.587 to 159
mean scene eighths2627.35.63 to 9.85
median scene eighths26243 to 5.5
interior share pct26263.151.93 to 72.55
day share pct23060.7547.78 to 74.15
unique locations2686041 to 83.25
location changes26898.573.75 to 141.25
speaking characters2684533 to 59.25
dialogue blocks268923761 to 1,089.5
dialogue words2688,945.57,027.5 to 10,879.75
dialogue action ratio2681.230.87 to 1.62
monologues2682011 to 32
top character pct26827.521 to 35.35
dialogue line share pct2684135 to 45
action line share pct2683428 to 41
runtime minutes (modelled estimate)268117107.75 to 130.25
parenthetical rate2680.110.07 to 0.16

Reproduce this release

The ZIP contains the original CSV, complete derived rows and aggregate tables, an expanded analysis CSV, manifest, field dictionary, inclusion/exclusion records, measurement guards, checksums, licence and a standalone reproduction script. No screenplay text or private file links are included.

Original files retained unchanged. These releases predate the per-record metadata review ledger; missing historical provenance and incomplete credits are disclosed in the package. Approval preserves the published record and does not certify missing metadata.

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Use this research

The PreList Industry Intelligence. The Anatomy of a Produced Screenplay. Snapshot anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1; cohort n=268, eligible n varies by measure. https://www.theprelist.io/research/versions/anatomy-of-a-produced-screenplay-2026-08-v1

Version details and manifest

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.