Watch a film at one cinema and get told the moment a returned seat appears or a new date goes on sale. Built for sold-out runs like IMAX 70mm.. Standard plan

Good for

A sold-out screening where somebody returns a seat, which is how most people get into an IMAX 70mm run.

Ideal settings

  • Pick the venue first, then the film. The BFI reports the exact number of seats left, so you get "2 seats available" rather than a guess.
  • Vue and the Science Museum only report sold out or not sold out, so treat those as a yes or no rather than a count.
  • Watch the film rather than one specific showing if you would take any date, and let the alert tell you which one opened up.

Tip: Returns appear at any hour and go quickly. Send this one to Discord or Telegram rather than email.

Settings reference

  • Venue
  • Science Museum film number: Science Museum only. The "kid" number in the museum's booking link. The Odyssey is 794.
  • BFI film link: BFI only. The last part of the booking URL, after "permalink=". You can paste the whole booking link.
  • Extra BFI listings (optional): BFI lists subtitled screenings separately. Add them here to watch both from one monitor.
  • Vue cinema number: Vue only. Manchester Printworks is 10091.
  • Vue cinema name in the URL: Vue only. Taken from myvue.com/cinema/<name>/whats-on.
  • Vue film code: Vue only. The 70mm IMAX showing has its own code, separate from the standard release.
  • Only these formats: Matches the screening format. Empty = every screening of the film.
  • Exclude
  • Only tell me if this many seats are free
  • Only these days: Nothing selected = every day. A late show that runs past midnight still counts as its own night.
  • Screenings from (optional)
  • Screenings until (optional)
  • Alert when new dates go on sale
  • Alert when a screening sells out
  • Read the seat map and tell me which rows are free: BFI and Vue. Runs only when a screening has seats, so a sold-out run costs nothing. The Science Museum has no readable seat map, so this does nothing there.
  • Only tell me about seats this good: Leave at 0 to hear about every return. 55 means "good view" and keeps the front rows out, which are the worst seats in an IMAX. It can only ever go quiet when the seat map was read and every free seat fell short, so a venue with no seat map still alerts.
  • Only tell me about these sections: The venue's own section names, comma separated. The BFI sells Standard, Premium and VIP. Vue sells Regular, Saver and Super Saver. Empty means any section.
  • Hold a seat automatically when a good one comes back: Puts a matching return in a basket on the BFI site and tells you, so you only have to pay. Tries once per screening, never takes wheelchair or companion seats, and never pays.
  • Only auto-hold seats this good: Front rows score under 20, so 55 keeps you out of rows A and B.
  • Ticket type to hold
  • Auto-hold at least this many seats: It holds nothing if it cannot reach this number.
  • Auto-hold at most this many seats: Takes as many good seats as are going, between the two.
  • Auto-hold allowed from (hour)
  • Auto-hold allowed until (hour): 0 to 24 is round the clock. A hold expires after about 10 minutes.