Following up on [last week’s article](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2010/are-parentheticals-over-used), Synthian took it upon himself to count how often screenwriters are actually using them, resulting in “a semi-random sampling of successful multi-decade, multi-genre writers vs their own parentheticals.”
The following numbers do not include non-dialog parentheses such as (O.S.), (V.O.) (MORE), or (CONT’D). They represent only dialogical parentheticals such as (through the megaphone) as well as (beat)s and (pause)s.
###Brian Helgeland
**THE POSTMAN:** 137 pages
161 parentheticals
1.17 parentheticals per page
**LA CONFIDENTIAL:** 110 pages
99 parentheticals
.9 parentheticals per page
**MAN ON FIRE:** 128 pages
76 parentheticals
.59 parentheticals per page
Brian Helgeland’s average parentheticals per page: .88
###John August
**BIG FISH:** 124 pages
97 parentheticals
.78 parentheticals per page
**THE NINES:** 100 pages
57 parentheticals
.57 parentheticals per page
**CHARLIE’S ANGELS:** 104 pages
109 parentheticals
1.04 parentheticals per page
John August’s average parentheticals per page: .79
###Other writers
**DAVID WEBB PEOPLES, 12 MONKEYS:** 150 pages
144 parentheticals
.96 parentheticals per page
**AARON SORKIN, A FEW GOOD MEN:** 149 pages
225 parentheticals
1.51 parentheticals per page
**J.F. LAWTON, PRETTY WOMAN:** 126 pages
143 parentheticals
1.13 parentheticals per page
**TED ELLIOTT & TERRY ROSSIO, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN:** 139 pages
152 parentheticals
1.09 parentheticals per page
With this (obviously limited) sample of 10 screenplays, we find a cohort of successful screenwriters using an average of .97 parentheticals per page. That’s higher than I would have guessed. I’m also surprised to find myself on the lower end of parenthesists.