Reserved seating vs general admission

Reserved seating removes the reason to arrive early and queue, which changes the shape of the evening: people book earlier, turn up closer to the start, and spend less time standing in a line and more — ideally — at the concession counter. It also lets a cinema sell a busy show in advance with confidence, because customers know what they are getting.

It works best with the kind of seating that makes the choice matter. Recliners and premium rows turned seat selection from a nicety into part of the product.

Once seats are reserved, the seat map becomes the most-used screen in the whole booking journey — and the one most often built badly for phones. Accessible spaces and companion seats need to be clearly marked and bookable online, not by phone; recliner and premium rows need to look different; and the map has to load fast on a weak connection. See cinema ticketing software for what a good one does.