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How many scenes should a screenplay have?

Tagged: film, length, outlines, presentation, screenplay, screenwriting, script, scriptwriting, structure

There is no set number of scenes a movie should have. It’s tempting to say that a 120-page script at approximately 2 to 3 pages per scene should have 40 to 60 scenes. While not wrong, this is a gross generalization.

The better answer is that a screenplay should have as many scenes as are necessary to tell the story, but no more.

### More from johnaugust.com
* [How long is a scene?](http://johnaugust.com/2003/how-long-is-a-scene “How long is a scene?”)
* [Script length](http://johnaugust.com/2003/script-length “Script length”)
* [How to write a scene](http://johnaugust.com/2007/write-scene “How to write a scene”)
* [Stressing over structure](http://johnaugust.com/2004/stressing-over-structure “Stressing over structure”)

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