The BigScreen Cinema Guide: Extranet - Submitting Your Showtime Information

Featured Theater Service Adds More Services

We publish showtimes for all movie theaters in the United States at no charge, but we provide many services for movie theaters that we think you will find valuable!

For a very small fee (based on the number of screens you have), your theater(s) will be highlighted on The BigScreen Cinema Guide and you will be able to post announcements, edit your showtimes, manage your ticket prices, and more.

For More Information...

To find out what services are part of our Featured Theater Service, please see our Theater Services page!

We obtain our schedule information from CinemaSource, a division of West World Media. To submit your showtime schedule information to CinemaSource for display on our site, use the following information:

Phone:	203-438-8389 (ask for Susan)
Fax:	203-438-0043 1-888-438-0043
E-Mail:	schedules@cinema-source.com

We monitor incoming showtimes for our Featured Theaters for the presence of your schedules when each batch import is processed. While it is not possible for us to verify the accuracy of each and every showtime, we do look for discrepancies and pursue any problems that we do find. After doing this for so many years, we know many of the common mistakes that are made, and we can have them resolved before they become a problem for you.

If you discover a problem with your showtimes, please contact CinemaSource at the phone number above, and also contact us so that we are aware of the situation.

Showtimes Update Schedule

We process the information we receive from CinemaSource multiple times each weekday. We usually receive four updates each weekday.

Updates are performed Monday through Friday on the following schedule (all times are Central Time):

New information may not be available at every one of these updates, so we perform additional checks at these times, so that we can catch updates as soon as they are available:

To see when your showtimes were last updated, visit our Extranet and click on your theater's name in the list. This service is only available as part of our Featured Theater Service. If you are not yet a Featured Theater, please contact us to get signed up for this great service!

Tips for Submitting Showtime Information

To assure that your showtimes are as accurate as possible, there are some simple guidelines that will make your showtimes information easier to process correctly.

Sample Showtimes Display

Below is a snippet of a showtimes display listing to demonstrate the features that are displayed.

Movie Name

If the movie is not a current release, be sure to include the year of release and any other details that may be helpful to the data entry staff to identify the movie correctly. For example, there are three movies called "The Good Thief" and two of them were made in 2002. By identifying your presentation of the correct movie with the starring cast (Nick Nolte and Tchéky Karyo) you can make sure that the information associated with your showtimes is correct.

Showtimes (indicate Matinee and Regular Price Shows)

Next to the movie name, the times of the shows are probably the most important information you can provide. Be sure to write or type the times clearly. (We recommend Arial or Verdana, 12 point type, minimum) This is especially important if you are faxing your showtimes since faxes can obscure small type/handwriting.

If you are doing a midnight show, like a Thursday night show of a movie opening the following day, be sure to specify that it is a midnight (or 12:05am or whatever the actual time is) show for Thursday night. Showtimes up to and including 2am are included on the previous day, so a 12:05am show for the night of Thursday, May 3rd, should be specified as a 12:05am on 5/3, not 5/4. This will make sure that the midnight shows are displayed on the daily showtimes calendar for Thursday, instead of being inserted at the beginning of your full day of Friday showtimes. While this doesn't follow exact calendar logic, the convention is one that moviegoers are accustomed to and will assure that your midnight shows appear with other midnight showtimes.

Presentation Attributes

A great way to differentiate your showtimes from those of other theaters is to provide additional information about your presentations. Budget-conscious customers are looking to use discount passes Our readers often seek out enhanced presentations that are in THX-certified auditoriums, that are in digital sound, etc. so please make sure to indicate these items on your showtimes!

Passes Accepted Indication

Whether or not you accept passes for particular presentations is important to our readers, so we add an indication when passes are not accepted.

Stadium Seating Indication

If you have stadium seating installed in some or all of your auditoriums, be sure to indicate which presentations are equipped with stadium seating. In The BigScreen Cinema Guide, we mark such presenations with a special indicator.

Digital Cinema and Digital Cinema 3D Indications

If you have upgraded your theater to use Digital Cinema projection equipment, please indicate that on your showtimes. If you add a note that says "Digital Cinema" or "Digital Cinema 3D" we'll add the appropriate logo onto your showtimes so that our readers know that you are showing movies in those formats. You can even specify the type of 3D equipment you are using if you like (e.g. "RealD 3D"). That information will be added to the notes that appear beneath the showtimes (see example above).

Digital Sound Indication

Digital Sound installations are more widespread than ever, but it is still not an assumption. On recent films, we have found that customers will look for digital sound presentations whenever possible. The BigScreen Cinema Guide also has the ability to distinguish between the formats available, so if you want that distinction made in your showtime information on our site, please be sure to include it. The following is a list of the sound formats we can indicate next to your showtimes:

THX Indication

If you have THX-certified auditoriums, please make sure to indicate which movies are playing in those screens! We have a special THX logo that will appear with your showtimes. Our readers prefer movies shown THX-certified auditoriums, so please be sure to indicate those shows to leverage your investment in THX certification!

Additional Notes

If you have additional information pertaining to a set of showtimes, please include a note so that it can be included in the "notes" field with your showtimes. For example, if you have a movie playing in a premium auditorium, be sure to note that in your showtimes so that it can be added to the notes field. This field is also useful if you have open caption, closed caption, or rear-window caption presentations, or if you run special showings, like "Baby Box Office" or "Movies for Moms". These notes will appear below the showtimes.