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The cinema terms nobody explains to you on day one.
71 definitions covering digital projection, distribution paperwork and box office language — written for the people who run the building, not for filmmakers.
Box office and operations
Admissions
Admissions is the count of people admitted — the volume measure that sits underneath box office gross, and the one inflation…
ATPAverage Ticket Price
Average ticket price is box office revenue divided by the number of tickets sold. It is the second half of every box office…
TermBooking Fee
A booking fee is a per-ticket or per-order charge added to online ticket sales. Rules against drip pricing increasingly require…
TermBox Office Gross
Gross box office is total ticket revenue before anything is deducted — which is not what the cinema keeps, and often not what…
TermDynamic Pricing
Dynamic pricing means changing ticket prices with demand. Cinemas have long used a fixed version — matinee and discount-day…
TermGift Card Breakage
Breakage is the part of gift card and voucher value that is never redeemed. For a cinema it is real revenue — but how and when it…
TermMultiplex Cinema
A multiplex is a cinema with several screens in one building, sharing a box office, a concession stand and a staff. The largest…
TermOccupancy Rate
Occupancy rate is admissions divided by the seats you offered — and it is only meaningful when you are honest about what counts…
TermOpening Weekend
Opening weekend is a film's first Friday to Sunday, and in practice it decides the shape of everything that follows.
PSAPer Screen Average
Per screen average is a title's box office divided by the number of screens it played on — the standard way to compare a platform…
TermPre-Show Advertising
Pre-show advertising is the block of adverts shown before the trailers and feature. It is usually sold by a cinema advertising…
TermReserved Seating
Reserved seating means each ticket is for a specific seat chosen at booking. General admission means any free seat, first come…
SPHSpend Per Head
Spend per head is concession revenue divided by admissions — and because film rental takes no share of it, it is usually the most…
Projection and playback
Aspect Ratio (Flat and Scope)
Aspect ratio is the width of the picture divided by its height. Cinema runs on two standards: flat, at 1.85:1, and scope, at…
TermB-Chain and X-Curve
The B-chain is the part of a cinema's sound system from the processor output to the room — amplifiers, loudspeakers and the…
TermCinema Masking
Masking is the movable black border that frames the screen to the aspect ratio of what is playing — and a missed masking cue is…
TermCinema Sound Processor
A cinema sound processor sits between the playback server and the amplifiers. It receives the soundtrack, sets the fader level…
CPLComposition Playlist
The CPL is the XML file inside a DCP that defines the composition — which track files play, in what order, for how long — and its…
TermCRU Drive
A CRU DX115 is the rugged drive carrier that DCPs ship in — a bare SATA disk in a shell that slots into a dock on the cinema…
DCIDCI Compliance
DCI is the studio-formed body whose specification defines digital cinema — and DCI compliance is why a package made anywhere…
TermDCI-P3
DCI-P3 is the range of colours a digital cinema projector is required to reproduce — noticeably wider than the Rec. 709 gamut…
TermDCP Naming Convention
Cinema packages are named to a fixed pattern so that the folder name alone tells you the aspect ratio, language, audio layout…
TermDCP-o-matic
DCP-o-matic is free, open-source software for creating DCPs — the usual answer for festivals, venues and filmmakers who need a…
DCPDigital Cinema Package
A DCP is the standardised folder of files a cinema ingests and plays instead of a film print — compressed picture, uncompressed…
DKDMDistribution Key Delivery Message
A DKDM is a KDM aimed at a key-generation system rather than a projector. Whoever holds it can issue ordinary KDMs for that…
TermFilm Print
A film print is a physical photochemical copy on reels — how every cinema ran until digital, and now a specialist capability a…
fLFoot-Lambert
A foot-lambert (fL) is the unit cinema uses for screen brightness. The reference for 2D digital cinema is 14 fL, which is 48…
TermForensic Watermarking
Forensic watermarking hides an invisible, inaudible code in the picture and sound at the moment of playback, recording when and…
HFRHigh Frame Rate
High frame rate (HFR) means projecting at more than the traditional 24 frames per second — usually 48, and occasionally 60 or 120…
TermIngest
Ingest is the act of copying a package from its carrier into the server's own storage and hash-checking it, so the film plays…
IMBIntegrated Media Block
The IMB is the board inside the projector that decrypts the DCP, decodes the JPEG 2000 picture and feeds the light engine — and…
TermInterop and SMPTE DCPs
Interop is the older, de facto DCP flavour that digital cinema launched on; SMPTE is the formally standardised successor. Most…
J2KJPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 is the image codec used for the picture in every Digital Cinema Package. Each frame is compressed on its own, as a…
KDMKey Delivery Message
A KDM is a small XML file that unlocks an encrypted DCP — for one named playback device, and only between a start and an end time.
TermLaser Projection
Laser projection replaces the xenon lamp in a cinema projector with a laser light source — either laser phosphor or RGB laser —…
Material Exchange FormatMXF
MXF is the container format that holds the picture and sound track files inside a DCP — a wrapper, not a codec.
PLFPremium Large Format
PLF stands for premium large format. In movies, PLF means a premium auditorium with a larger screen, better projection and sound…
TermProjection Booth
The projection booth is the room behind or above the auditorium that houses the projector, playback server, sound processor and…
TermProjectionist
A projectionist is responsible for presenting films in a cinema. Since the move to digital, the job is mostly files, keys…
TermScreen Gain
Screen gain is how brightly a screen reflects light compared with a matte white reference of 1.0. Higher gain looks brighter in…
SPLShow Playlist
The show playlist is the entire performance as the screen runs it: pre-show, adverts, trailers, certificate, feature and credits…
TermSubtitles in a DCP
Cinema subtitles are either burned into the picture, rendered by the server over it, or delivered to a personal device — and the…
TMSTheatre Management System
A TMS is the single console that controls every screen in the building — distributing packages, building show playlists…
TermThrow Ratio
Throw ratio is the distance from the projector lens to the screen divided by the width of the projected image. It decides which…
TermXenon Lamp
A xenon lamp is a high-pressure short-arc bulb that lights the image in lamp-based cinema projectors. It is a consumable with a…
Accessibility
Assistive Listening System
An assistive listening system (ALS) sends the soundtrack directly to a patron's receiver, headset or hearing aid, so they are not…
ADAudio Description
Audio description is a spoken narration of a film's key visual elements — action, settings, expressions, scene changes —…
TermOpen and Closed Captions
Open captions are displayed on the screen for the whole auditorium. Closed captions are delivered only to the patrons who ask for…
Distribution and booking
Cinema Certificate
A certificate is the age classification a film carries in a given territory — and enforcing it at the door is the cinema's legal…
TermClearance
Clearance is a distributor's grant of exclusivity on a title within a geographic zone — one cinema plays it, and a nearby…
TermCommunity Cinema
A community cinema is a local, usually volunteer-led and non-profit group that screens films for its area, in a village hall, an…
TermDay-and-Date
A day-and-date release opens in cinemas and at home simultaneously, with no exclusive theatrical period at all.
TermFilm Booking
Film booking is the process of securing titles from distributors and agreeing the terms they play on — the commercial decision…
TermFilm Buyer
A film buyer, or film booker, represents a cinema in negotiations with distributors: which films it plays, on which screens, for…
TermFilm Distributor
A film distributor holds the right to release a film in a territory. For a cinema it is the counterparty for everything: the…
TermFilm Exhibitor
A film exhibitor is the business that shows a film to the public: a cinema, a cinema circuit, or another licensed venue. It is…
TermFilm Programming
Film programming is the weekly decision about which films a cinema plays, on which screens, at which times — balancing what the…
TermFilm Rental
Film rental is the share of box office paid to the distributor — usually a percentage that starts high in the opening week and…
TermFirst-Run Cinema
A first-run cinema plays new films from their release date, during the period when the distributor's share of box office is at…
TermFour-Walling
Four-walling is renting the auditorium itself for a flat fee: the renter takes the box office and the risk, and the cinema takes…
TermHoldover
A holdover is a film that stays on screen for another week. A holdover clause obliges the cinema to keep it if the weekend gross…
TermHouse Nut
The house nut is an agreed weekly figure for a cinema's operating costs, deducted from box office before the distributor's share…
TermMicrocinema
A microcinema is a very small screening venue — often a converted room of a few dozen seats — run for a specific audience rather…
MGMinimum Guarantee
A minimum guarantee is a floor on what a cinema pays the distributor for a booking. If the percentage terms would produce less…
TermParamount Decrees
The Paramount Decrees were US antitrust settlements that forced the major studios to separate distribution from exhibition and…
TermPublic Performance Licence
A public performance licence is the permission a rights holder gives to show a film to an audience outside a private home. A…
TermRepertory Cinema
Repertory programming means showing older and classic films rather than the current release slate — a different business, with…
TermSecond-Run Cinema
A second-run cinema plays recent releases after their main run has finished, at a discount — a volume-and-concessions model…
TermTheatrical Window
The theatrical window is the exclusive period between a film opening in cinemas and becoming available at home — historically…
VPFVirtual Print Fee
The VPF was a per-booking contribution paid by distributors to fund the industry's conversion from 35mm to digital — recycling…
TermWide and Limited Release
A wide release opens nationally, which Box Office Mojo defines as 600 or more theaters. A limited release plays fewer. A platform…