Show playlist

A published session time is when the playlist starts. The feature begins somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five minutes later, depending on how much advertising and how many trailers sit in front of it.

That gap is a commercial decision with an operational tail. It sets how long the audience sits before the film, how tight your turnaround is, and how late the last show ends. It also causes most complaints about start times, because customers reasonably assume the advertised time is the film.

Automation cues live in the same playlist. House lights to half at the start of the trailers, to out at the certificate, masking changed if the feature is a different ratio from the trailers, sound format switched, lights up on the credits cue. Every one of those is a row in the playlist, and a missing cue is why a show runs with the lights up.