What is 10DLC for movie theaters?

10DLC is the US registration system for businesses texting customers from a normal 10-digit phone number. A movie theater registers its business (the brand) and the purpose of its messages (the campaign) with The Campaign Registry through its texting provider. Unregistered 10DLC texts are blocked by carriers.

Do cinemas have to register for 10DLC to send text messages?

Yes, if they send automated texts to US numbers from a 10-digit long code. Twilio blocked all unregistered US 10DLC traffic from September 1, 2023. The alternatives are a verified toll-free number or a short code, which have their own approval processes.

How much does 10DLC registration cost for a cinema?

As published by Twilio and Telnyx on November 4, 2026: $4.50 brand registration, $15 per campaign review, and $1.50 a month for a Low Volume Mixed campaign or $10 a month for standard campaigns. A Standard brand with secondary vetting is $46 one-time at Twilio. Carriers add about $0.0035 to $0.005 per outbound SMS segment.

Which 10DLC campaign type should a cinema choose?

A small cinema sending fewer than a few thousand texts a day usually picks Low Volume Mixed, which covers confirmations and promotions together. Larger operators often register Marketing and Account Notifications separately. Always choose the use case that matches the messages you actually send.

How long does 10DLC approval take?

Campaign review is manual, so timing varies by provider and queue, and every rejection adds another review round. Submit a complete campaign first time and allow for waiting before a launch. Short codes take longest: Twilio quotes 6 to 10 weeks from payment to going live.

Why was my cinema's 10DLC campaign rejected?

The most common reasons are a privacy policy without an SMS no-sharing clause, an opt-in that reviewers cannot see, consent buried in general terms, a vague campaign description, and sample messages missing the cinema name or STOP wording.

Can a cinema send marketing texts to everyone who bought a ticket?

No. Under the TCPA, automated marketing texts need prior express written consent, such as an unticked checkbox the customer ticks at checkout, and carriers require opt-in regardless. A booking confirmation the customer asked for is different, as long as it stays purely transactional.

Does 10DLC apply to cinemas in the UK or Europe?

No. 10DLC is US-only. UK cinemas follow PECR, which requires consent for marketing texts unless the soft opt-in applies, and EU cinemas follow the ePrivacy rules and GDPR.

10DLC for Movie Theaters: How Cinemas Register for SMS

10DLC for movie theaters is the registration a US cinema has to complete before it can text customers from an ordinary 10-digit phone number. If you want to send showtime alerts, ticket confirmations or member offers by SMS, the carriers need to know who you are and what you will send, and they will not deliver your messages until you have told them. This guide explains 10DLC for cinemas step by step: what it is, how brand and campaign registration work, which campaign type to pick, what it costs, how to collect consent, and when a toll-free number or short code is the better route.

It is written for cinema owners, managers and marketing staff in the United States. Fees and carrier rules change, so every figure below names its source and the date we checked it.

What 10DLC is and why cinemas run into it

10DLC stands for 10-digit long code: a normal US phone number, like the one on your box office line. When a business sends texts from software rather than a person typing on a phone, carriers call it application-to-person (A2P) messaging. A2P traffic over 10-digit numbers is only allowed through the 10DLC system, which links every sending number to a registered business (a "brand") and a registered purpose (a "campaign").

Registration is handled by The Campaign Registry (TCR), the shared database the US carriers use. You do not usually deal with TCR directly. Your texting provider (Twilio, Telnyx, Bandwidth, or a marketing platform built on top of them) submits your details to TCR, and the carriers review them.

Unregistered traffic no longer gets through. Twilio began increasing the blocking of unregistered US 10DLC messages on July 5, 2023 and, from September 1, 2023, blocked all of them, returning error 30034 ("Message from an Unregistered Number") and still charging for the attempt. Other providers enforce the same rule. So if a cinema bought a number, wired it to a booking system and found that texts never arrive, missing 10DLC registration is the first thing to check.

10DLC is a US system. It covers messages sent to US mobile numbers from US 10-digit numbers. It does not apply to toll-free numbers or short codes, which have their own approval processes (covered below).

How 10DLC registration works for cinemas

There are two registrations, done in order through your provider.

Step 1: register the brand

The brand is the legal business that sends the messages. You will be asked for the legal company name exactly as it appears with the IRS, the EIN, business address, website, a contact person, and the type of organisation (private company, public company, non-profit). Mismatches between the legal name and the EIN record are a common reason a brand stays "unverified", so copy the name from your IRS paperwork, not from your marquee. If the cinema trades under a different name, give the legal entity and add the trading name where the form allows it.

A cinema group with several sites under one EIN registers one brand. Separate legal entities each need their own.

Step 2: register the campaign

The campaign describes what you will send. Reviewers expect, per Twilio's campaign registration guidance:

A use case that matches the messages (see the next section).
A description that says who sends, who receives and why. "Messages are sent by [Cinema name] to customers who opt in at online checkout or at the box office: showtime and ticket-sale announcements, booking confirmations and member offers" passes. "This campaign sends messages to customers" does not.
The message flow: exactly where and how people opt in, with a link or screenshot a reviewer can check.
Sample messages that look like the real ones, with your cinema's name and opt-out wording in at least one.
Opt-in, opt-out and help keywords and the replies they trigger.

Once the campaign is approved, your provider attaches your phone numbers to it and messages start flowing at the throughput your brand and campaign qualify for.

Which campaign type a cinema should choose

Pick the use case that honestly matches what you will send. Declaring a cheaper or faster use case than your real traffic is a compliance breach, and Telnyx warns that carriers inspect traffic and fine false declarations. The types a cinema is most likely to use, with Twilio's definitions:

Use case	What it covers	Cinema examples
Marketing	Promotional content such as sales and limited-time offers	New releases on sale, discount Tuesdays, member offers, event nights
Account Notifications	Status of an account, or being part of one	Booking confirmations, membership renewal reminders, points balance
Customer Care	Support and other customer interaction	Two-way texting with the box office about a booking or refund
Mixed	Several use cases on one campaign	Confirmations and promotions from the same number
Low Volume Mixed	Several use cases, lower monthly fee, fixed at the lowest throughput	A single-screen or small independent sending a few thousand texts a day at most

Most single-site cinemas are best served by one Low Volume Mixed campaign. Larger operators usually separate Marketing from Account Notifications, so a problem with promotional traffic does not hold up booking confirmations, and so each campaign's description and samples stay tight.

Trust score, vetting and throughput

How fast you can send depends on brand type, campaign type and, for Standard brands, a trust score from secondary vetting by a third party. Twilio's throughput tables, checked on November 4, 2026, give these SMS rates per second toward AT&T and Verizon:

Brand or campaign	SMS per second (AT&T, Verizon)
Trust score 75 to 100	75
Trust score 50 to 74	40
Trust score 1 to 49	4
Low Volume Standard brand (no vetting)	4
Low Volume Mixed campaign	1.25

T-Mobile works differently: it sets a daily cap per EIN, shared by all brands and campaigns under that tax ID. Twilio lists 200,000 a day for trust scores of 75 to 100, 40,000 for 50 to 74, 10,000 for 25 to 49 and 2,000 for 1 to 24. Low Volume Mixed campaigns are limited to 2,000 SMS segments and MMS a day toward T-Mobile.

What this means in practice: at 1.25 messages a second, a Low Volume Mixed campaign sends about 75 texts a minute to each of those networks, so a 3,000-number list goes out in well under an hour. That is fine for a small venue. A chain blasting a big opening to 50,000 members needs a vetted Standard brand with a good trust score, or a short code.

What 10DLC costs: TCR, vetting, campaign and carrier fees

There are two kinds of 10DLC charges: registration fees and per-message carrier fees. Providers pass both through, usually at cost. TCR raised several of its fees on August 1, 2025. As published by Twilio and Telnyx on November 4, 2026:

Fee	Amount	When
Brand registration (Low Volume Standard)	$4.50	One-time
Brand registration (Standard, including secondary vetting)	$46 at Twilio ($4.50 plus $41.50 vetting)	One-time
Campaign vetting / review	$15	Per campaign submission
Campaign fee: Low Volume Mixed	$1.50	Monthly
Campaign fee: standard use cases (Marketing, Mixed, Account Notifications, Customer Care)	$10	Monthly
Vetting appeal	$11	Per appeal

Telnyx bills campaign fees for three months up front and then monthly. Because the review fee is charged per submission, a rejected campaign that you resubmit costs another $15, which is a good reason to get the website and opt-in right first time.

Per-message carrier fees

On top of your provider's own price per message, each carrier adds a surcharge per SMS segment. Twilio's US pricing page, checked November 4, 2026, lists for 10-digit long codes:

Carrier	Outbound SMS	Outbound MMS
AT&T	$0.0035	$0.009
T-Mobile	$0.0045	$0.01
Verizon	$0.005	$0.007
US Cellular	$0.005	$0.01
All other carriers	$0.0042	$0.01

Twilio's own list price was $0.0083 per outbound segment on the same date, so a single-segment text to a Verizon customer costs about $0.013 all in. A campaign to 5,000 opted-in moviegoers is therefore roughly $65 per send before volume discounts. Watch your length: one segment holds 160 standard characters, a longer message is split into 153-character segments, each charged separately, and an emoji switches the whole message to an encoding that fits only 70 characters per segment.

Alternatives: toll-free numbers and short codes

10DLC is not the only way to text US customers.

Toll-free numbers

An 800-style number can send texts once it passes toll-free verification, a separate review run by your provider and the carriers. Since January 31, 2024, messages from unverified or pending toll-free numbers are blocked. Verified toll-free numbers start at 3 segments a second at Twilio, which can be raised. Toll-free suits a cinema that wants one national number with no TCR brand or campaign fees, and it has the same carrier surcharges as 10DLC on Twilio's pricing page. The trade-off is a less local-looking number, and verification asks for the same opt-in evidence.

Short codes

A 5 or 6-digit short code ("Text MOVIES to 12345") gives the highest throughput and the easiest keyword sign-ups from posters and pre-show slides. It is also the most expensive and the slowest to get. Twilio lists a $1,000 one-time setup fee, then $3,000 a quarter for a random code or $4,500 a quarter for a vanity code, with a month's discount for paying yearly. Twilio quotes 6 to 10 weeks from payment to going live, and warns that carriers freeze provisioning from mid December to early January.

Which route suits which cinema

Cinema	Typical route	Why
Single-screen or small independent	Low Volume Standard brand, Low Volume Mixed campaign, one local number	Under $25 to register, $1.50 a month, enough throughput for a local list
Small circuit, a few sites	Standard brand with vetting, separate Marketing and Account Notification campaigns, a local number per site	Higher throughput, confirmations isolated from promotions, local numbers customers recognise
Chain with a national list	Short code for marketing, 10DLC or toll-free for transactional texts	Big launches go out in minutes; keyword sign-ups work on posters and screens
Venue wanting one national number	Verified toll-free	No TCR fees, one number for all sites

Compliance: TCPA, CTIA and keeping records

Registration gets your messages delivered. Consent is what keeps you out of court. This is a general summary, not legal advice; talk to a US lawyer before you launch a programme.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the FCC's rules at 47 CFR 64.1200 require "prior express written consent" for automated marketing messages to mobile numbers: an agreement, signed (an electronic signature such as ticking a box counts), that clearly authorises the cinema to send marketing texts to that number. The disclosure must also say that consent is not a condition of purchase. Since the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of an autodialer in Facebook v. Duguid (2021), whether a given texting tool is covered is argued case by case, and several states have their own "mini-TCPA" laws. Carriers and CTIA require opt-in regardless, so treat written consent as mandatory for every promotional text.

Transactional texts the customer asked for, such as a booking confirmation for a ticket they just bought, need a lighter level of consent. Keep them strictly transactional. Adding "and 20% off popcorn this week" turns a confirmation into marketing.

The FCC one-to-one consent rule: vacated

The FCC's 2023 "one-to-one consent" rule would have required consent to be given to one seller at a time. It was due to take effect on January 27, 2025, but the Eleventh Circuit vacated it on January 24, 2025 in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC, and the FCC has since deleted the vacated language and reinstated the prior rule. For a cinema collecting its own opt-ins this changes little: your consent should name your cinema anyway.

STOP, HELP and revoking consent

Every recurring programme must honour STOP and HELP. Under the FCC's consent-revocation rules, in force since April 11, 2025, customers can revoke consent by any reasonable means, including replying STOP, QUIT, END, REVOKE, OPT OUT, CANCEL or UNSUBSCRIBE, and a business must honour it within 10 business days. A customer who tells the box office "stop texting me" has also opted out. One part of the rule, about how far a single opt-out reaches across a business's other message types, was postponed by the FCC; check its status with your lawyer.

Quiet hours

Federal rules bar telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient's local time zone. Some states are stricter: Florida's limit is 8 p.m. A late-show reminder at 9:30 p.m. is a marketing text sent in quiet hours. Schedule sends by the customer's time zone, not the head office's.

CTIA Messaging Principles

The CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices are the carriers' rulebook. They are not law, but carriers enforce them through filtering and suspension. The essentials: clear opt-in, a confirmation message after opt-in, working HELP and STOP replies, message frequency disclosed, and no content in banned categories.

Record-keeping

For every number, keep the date and time of opt-in, the source (web checkout, box office, keyword), the exact consent wording shown at that moment, the IP address or staff member, and every opt-out with its date. Keep them for at least four years, the federal limitation period for TCPA claims. If your checkout wording changes, archive the old version.

Where a cinema should collect SMS opt-ins

Online checkout. An unticked checkbox next to the phone field, separate from the terms and conditions box. Pre-ticked boxes are not consent.
Membership or loyalty sign-up. The natural place for offers. If you run a loyalty programme, make SMS one of the channel choices rather than a condition of joining.
Box office and kiosk. A short paper or tablet form, with the same wording as online. Reviewers want to see it, so photograph or screenshot it for the campaign submission.
Keyword on screen and posters. "Text JOIN to [number]", followed by a confirmation reply. Works with 10DLC, toll-free or a short code.

A consent line that matches what reviewers look for:

☐ Text me showtime announcements, booking updates and member offers from [Cinema name]. Up to 6 messages a month. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel. See our Terms and Privacy Policy [links].

Sample cinema text messages

Each message names the cinema, and recurring promotions carry opt-out wording. Bracketed fields are templates, which is how reviewers expect samples to be written.

Opt-in confirmation: "[Cinema name]: You're signed up for showtime alerts and member offers. Up to 6 msgs/month. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel."
Showtime launch: "[Cinema name]: Tickets for [Film] are on sale now. Opening night [Day] [Time]. Book: [link] Reply STOP to opt out."
Sold-out alert / extra show: "[Cinema name]: [Film] sold out Friday, so we've added a 9:45pm show. Seats: [link] STOP to opt out."
Member offer: "[Cinema name] Members: 2-for-1 tickets this Tuesday with code [CODE]. [link] Reply STOP to opt out."
Booking confirmation (transactional): "[Cinema name]: Booking [ref] confirmed. [Film], [Date] [Time], Screen [N], seats [Seats]. Show this text or your e-ticket at the door."
HELP reply: "[Cinema name]: For help visit [website] or call [phone]. Reply STOP to unsubscribe."
STOP reply: "[Cinema name]: You've been unsubscribed and will get no more messages from this number."

Common reasons cinema campaigns get rejected

The privacy policy has no SMS clause. Reviewers look for wording that no mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes, and that text-messaging opt-in data and consent will not be shared with third parties. Sharing with service providers, such as your texting platform, is allowed.
The opt-in cannot be seen. If the checkbox sits behind a login or the form is on paper, upload a screenshot or photo and link it in the message flow.
The opt-in is buried in general terms or bundled with another consent. It must be specific to texting and to your cinema.
The website does not match the brand. A site that does not mention the legal business, or a holding page with no privacy policy, makes the brand hard to verify.
The description is vague or does not say who sends, who receives and why.
Samples are missing the cinema name or opt-out wording, or do not match the use case (promotional samples on an Account Notification campaign).
Keywords and replies are blank. List your opt-in, STOP and HELP keywords and the exact replies.

Fix all of these before you submit. Each resubmission is another review, another fee and more waiting.

Outside the US

10DLC only exists in the United States. UK and EU cinemas do not register with TCR; texting there is governed by consent law instead. In the UK, PECR requires consent for marketing texts unless you meet the "soft opt-in" (an existing customer, similar products, an opt-out offered when the number was collected and in every message), as the ICO explains. In the EU, the ePrivacy rules and GDPR set the same consent-first standard. Canada has its own anti-spam law.

How this fits with Filmgrail

Filmgrail sends both app push notifications and SMS campaigns, targeted by the same behaviour data: watchlist, genre, location and what each customer has already seen. Push needs no carrier registration and has no per-message carrier fees, so many cinemas use it for showtime alerts and offers and keep SMS for customers without the app or for messages that must not be missed. For US cinemas, the texts still go out from a number that has to be registered for 10DLC under your cinema's own brand, so the steps above apply. Capture the SMS opt-in where the customer books, in the ticketing and checkout flow. For ideas on what to promote, see our guide to film promotion and marketing for cinemas.