- Home
- Cinema suppliers
- Lighting and signage
- National CineMedia
National CineMedia
The largest cinema advertising network in the United States, selling and delivering the pre-show across a substantial share of American screens.
| Category | Lighting and signage |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | United States |
| Sells into | North America |
| Typically fits | Mid-size circuits · Large circuits |
| Positioning | Mainstream |
| Known for | Cinema advertising network, Pre-show programming |
| Website | ncm.com |
NCM aggregates screens into a network large enough to sell to national advertisers, which is the whole point: an individual cinema cannot offer a brand meaningful reach, but several thousand screens can. Exhibitors contribute inventory and receive a share of the revenue.
For the cinema, the practical consequence lands in the show playlist. The pre-show has a contracted length and content, which fixes part of the gap between your advertised session time and the feature actually starting — typically fifteen to twenty-five minutes overall — and that in turn constrains your turnaround and your last session of the night.
It is genuinely high-margin revenue on inventory you would otherwise leave empty. It is also the most common source of customer complaints about start times, which is an argument for being explicit on your own site and app about what the advertised time means.
Filmgrail has no commercial relationship with National CineMedia and this listing is not an endorsement. It is here because a cinema evaluating its supply chain should be able to see the whole of it in one place. Details change — check anything decision-critical with the supplier.