Q:

Do script readers start at the beginning?

Script readers-- the people who sift and sort the vast piles of scripts submitted to Hollywood -- do they start at the beginning?
The reason I ask is that I know 99% of scripts are awful and just get thrown out after a couple pages....but if that's true, do they even bother starting at the beginning, or do they just flip to the middle for a sample of the writing?

A:

The short answer is, yes, although there's no rule about it, studio readers do seem to start on page one. 
Readers looking for scripts for their employers to film look for a lot of things: That there's a basic concept at work in the script, that the three-act structure is being followed... there's a list to be ticked off, and every studio will require their readers look for certain things. But these guys read a lot of scripts and only have so much time in the day. It's generally assumed that they may not even finish reading a script, skimming it or even abandoning ones that are not promising. 
While readers not part of a studio may read for broad strokes or even just skim the dialog, studio readers seem to just start at the beginning. Saying that you can tell if a script is bad by the tenth page (and sometimes earlier) seems to be not unusual at all. 
There may be some that dip into the middle first; I do this when evaluating manuscripts I may edit, knowing that writers open with a bang and the beginning may be atypical, but if they do, I suspect this isn't the norm. Movies are, by their nature, generally front-loaded, particularly modern ones. So it's never going to hurt to grab the reader up-front, and it's probably expected that you try. Just make sure you follow this through in the rest of your script. 

