Film programming: deciding what plays, where and when

In a multiplex, programming is mostly allocation: the titles are largely decided by the release calendar, and the skill is in matching screens and time slots to demand — the big opener in the biggest room at peak, the family title on weekend mornings, the holdover squeezed into the gaps.

In an independent or repertory house, programming is closer to curation. The programmer is choosing from a far wider pool, building seasons and events, and making the argument for why an audience should come. Both are real skills; they are just different jobs.

The outputs are measurable: occupancy by show rather than by day, revenue per available seat, and how often a sold-out show sat next to a half-empty one in a larger room. The inputs are harder — they include what your own audience has booked before, which a box office system alone rarely makes easy to see.

That is the argument for connecting programming to audience data rather than running it from a spreadsheet: the question is not only what is opening, but who at your cinema is likely to come, and when. Filmgrail's planning tool is built around exactly that loop.