Google Showtimes, how to get on it?

[Perry Mulder]

We have started our new 3 auditorium cinema in Hulst, Netherlands, this past february of 2023.
Does anyone know how to get your filmprogram in Google Showtimes?

What we have done so far is:
- updated the website to a new version where showtime information is integrated as structured data.
- Google Rich Media was added and synchronisation tasks were added as wel with google snippets.
- The detailpage contains a piece of code per time in which the showtime information is included.
- Talked to Google Ads but they said they had no knowledge there on how showtimes worked. Also they did not know who did know.

The developers are now including showtime information via the' /feed ' page of our url. They are implementing a xml file with the showtimes.

Still our showtimes are not shown on google showtimes.

Some people suggested the use of an api code, but I've been told google stopt using those two or three years ago.

Any recommandations on how to get this done?

Our url: koningvanengeland.com

[Frank Cox]

Send your program schedule information (and, I guess, your location and whatnot if you haven't sent your information in before) to schedules@cinema-source.com and times@nowshowing.com.

I just have those two addresses on my weekly email mailing list so they get the same email that my customers get, and it seems to work out just fine.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I doubt Google crawls all those pages individually to get those showtimes. To me, it looks like Google only shows Dutch cinema listings of cinemas that are present on filmvandaag.nl, so maybe you should try to get your listings on their page at well or if they have a common source, ask them where they get their listings from.

[Carsten Kurz]

When Google showtimes had been messed up here a few years ago, the german exhibitor association contacted Google about it successfully. Turned out that, at least at the time, they did indeed NOT crawl showtimes, but actually employed a multinational company that gathered show times from different sources and supplied them to Google. So, there were a few aggregators involved, but the final aggregator at the time was WEBEDIA .
There was a range of errors - sometimes no listings, sometimes wrong calculation of time zone shifts, daylight savings transition issues, etc.
After a few months the issues disappeared.

Don't know if the information in this video is still valid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeDo7lnfTWE

- Carsten

[Jason Sharp]

In the USA there are two companies that supply showtimes to various third party websites (Google included).
You may want to contact them to see if they handle showtimes for your region.

Cinema Source / Webedia CSManagement@webedia.us
Gracenote / Tribune Media Services tmsgf-ccemovies@gracenote.com

[Barry Floyd]

We use a service called CSExpress. I update it via the web every Monday night. It pretty much populates to everywhere. In my truck (2017 Ram1500) it has an "infotainment system" that has an app for movie showtimes and local gas prices. Since we've started using CSExpress, the showtimes for my drive-in show up on the screen in my truck. They never did before.

[Mike Blakesley]

We have never done anything to get our showtimes on Google, but they're there. I don't know if they somehow scan our website, or maybe they get it off of the RTS ticket sales site or whatever, but they're on there.

For fun, I looked up the CSExpress referenced above. I have a Boxoffice account since we have a subscription, but that login didn't work and there was no link to sign up, so I guess we'll keep doing what we've been doing.

[Frank Cox]

There seem to be multiple ways to get there from here.

I got those email addresses I posted several years back when people from Cinemasource and Tribune phoned me to ask how to get my schedule so they could add it to whatever they add it to. Ever since my "what's playing" shows up on pretty much all of the movie websites, imdb, google, what-have-you. So it works.

[Jon Dent]

We've been listed on Google ever since I did an SEO optimization pass on our website through Wix. We didn't show up on IMDB for the longest time until we toyed with the idea of using Fandango. We got about halfway through the setup with RTS before we reconsidered but something must've been turned on because now we show up on a lot of third party sites. They only seem to update once a week though.

[Marcel Birgelen]

@Perry Mulder
If you find out what source Google is using for their reservations in the Netherlands, let us know, because that's quite some useful information.

WEBEDIA, as mentioned by Carsten and Jason may be a good lead, as they're active internationally and seemingly are also the primary source for German showtimes. I suspect that sites like "filmvandaag.nl" source their content from there too.

Another Dutch company collecting showtimes is Hyperleap, but I'm pretty sure they're not providing information to Google.

[Perry Mulder]

Hi All,

Tnx for all the replies. We are starting a big investigation to crack the code in the upcoming weeks, haha.
I have hired a few young IT guys that will make it their main task to figure this out.
I will share all the results once I have a clear idea on how Google is searching for the showtime info.
So far we had no luck. But I'm hopefull.

Perry