Screenwriters have long relied on a rough rule: one properly formatted script page equals about one minute of screen time. It's not exact, but it's consistent enough to be genuinely useful for planning.

Why this rule works at all

Standard screenplay format uses fixed margins, a fixed font (Courier, 12pt), and predictable spacing, which keeps word density per page relatively stable across different scripts — unlike a novel manuscript, where formatting varies wildly.

Where the rule breaks down

• Action-heavy scenes with sparse dialogue often run shorter than their page count suggests
• Dialogue-dense scenes tend to play close to the estimate
• Montages and visual sequences can compress a lot of story time onto very few pages

A useful sanity check

Even outside formal screenplay software, checking your draft's word count against a target range gives you a fast gut-check on pacing — a scene ballooning past 1,000 words of dialogue is usually a sign it needs a trim before table reads even begin.