Premium large format (PLF) auditoriums

A premium room earns its premium only if the audience can tell the difference before buying. On a listings page that flattens every screening into a row of times, the PLF showing is a slightly more expensive version of the same film — and a price-sensitive audience picks the cheaper one.

The rooms that hold their price are the ones sold as a distinct choice: named in the listing, explained on the film page, shown at the moment of seat selection, and remembered for the customers who chose it last time. That is a website and app problem as much as a projection one.

A PLF is usually the largest room in the building, so it is the room a big opener most wants — which means the format's premium and the studio's preferences for that room have to be reconciled week by week in programming. A licensed format can also come with conditions on which titles play in it. The premium formats directory lists the licensors.