Open cinema data standard
One format for cinema showtimes, apps and digital signage
CinemaShowtimes-JSON is a free, open and vendor-neutral format for publishing cinema venues, films, auditoria, sessions, ticket offers, accessibility and availability. It gives cinema systems a common language instead of requiring a custom integration for every app, website or display.
CinemaShowtimes-JSON 1.1 defines a documented JSON structure and formal schema. A cinema can publish it as a static file or an API response, and authorised systems can consume the same data without being tied to one point-of-sale, scheduling or signage vendor. The project is available under the permissive MIT licence.
How the information flows
1. Cinema systems
Scheduling, POS, catalogue and facility systems provide the authoritative details for films, sessions, screens, offers and accessibility.
2. Open JSON feed
Stable identifiers, time zones, freshness, provenance and media rights make the data portable, predictable and safe to reuse.
3. Connected experiences
Websites, mobile apps, kiosks, newsletters, search services and digital signage all receive a consistent public view of the schedule.
How DCN and Clubmovie use it
DCN and Clubmovie use cinema data services to share film and scheduling information between applications. CinemaShowtimes-JSON provides the public interchange layer: a downstream app does not need to understand the internal database or workflow that produced the schedule; it only needs to understand the standard feed.
The shared data can include venue and auditorium details, films and coming-soon titles, session start times, classifications, accessibility, presentation details, poster and trailer references, offers and booking links. Each item carries stable identity and explicit timing so several applications can refer to the same film or session reliably.
Public Clubmovie demonstration feed
https://admin.clubmovie.com.au/api/cmAdmin/cinemashowtimes/3/
This endpoint is included with Cinema Sign as its demonstration/default source, so a new installation can display real CinemaShowtimes-formatted data immediately.
How Cinema Sign uses it
Cinema Sign is our free Android TV digital-signage application. It reads CinemaShowtimes-JSON and turns the shared cinema schedule into unattended, screen-ready presentation.
- Imports films, sessions, posters, trailers and coming-soon titles.
- Uses ISO-formatted session times and the configured cinema territory.
- Selects territory-aware classifications for the display.
- Caches media for reliable playback and refreshes the schedule automatically.
- Displays posters, trailers and live session times on an NVIDIA Shield or another modern Android TV player.
Cinema Sign can also receive Veezi data or manually entered sessions, but CinemaShowtimes-JSON is the open, vendor-neutral integration path.
What the standard carries
Public cinema information
- Stable venue, film, auditorium and session IDs
- RFC 3339 times, time zones, generated time and expiry
- Titles, synopses, genres, runtime and regional classifications
- Accessibility, language, captions and audio-description details
- Posters, trailers, artwork rights and canonical web pages
- Auditorium, format, offers, booking links and availability
Private operational information stays private
The format is a public showtimes interchange, not a POS transaction protocol or cinema-server management API. It should not expose:
- KDMs, certificates or cryptographic material
- Server, storage, device or internal network details
- Operational diagnostics
- Patron identities or private sales data
Build with CinemaShowtimes-JSON
The project includes a formal JSON Schema, examples, implementation guidance, converters for common cinema systems and a WordPress plugin. Feeds may be publicly readable or protected for partner and multi-cinema use.