Adding a show is a 2-minute job once you know which fields matter. This walks through the form and flags the gotchas that have caused problems before.
Where
Admin → Shows → New show (top right of the Shows list).
The fields, in order
Film *
Search the dropdown — there are 295+ titles already in the system. Pick from the existing list whenever possible so the poster, runtime, and metadata auto-populate. If the film genuinely isn't in there yet, ask Matt to add it; don't type in a free-text title without a film record because it'll break printouts and reports.
City *
Pick from the dropdown. Each city has its own venue, timezone, and email reply-to alias.
Date *
The actual date the show happens. Sales close based on this date and the city's timezone.
Time
24-hour format (e.g., 19:00 for 7 PM). Defaults to 18:30. Affects sales-cutoff logic — for example, if cutoff is "Tuesday 23:59 of show week," a Saturday show closes at Tuesday 23:59 of the same week.
Capacity
The seat count. This is the public number the storefront uses to compute "X seats left." Don't pad it with a buffer — if the room can flex, use the capacity override on a per-booking basis instead.
Description
Optional. If left blank, the storefront uses the film's default description.
Poster Image URL
Optional. Auto-populates from the film record. Override only if you've got a city-specific poster.
Pricing tiers
Each tier defines a row at checkout. The defaults work for most shows:
- Adult $ — primary ticket price
- Child $ — leave blank if the show is adults-only
- Capacity — per-tier cap. Leave blank for "unlimited" (uses overall capacity).
For multi-tier pricing (early bird, premium seats, etc.), add additional tiers. Each tier has its own label, price, and per-tier cap.
After save
The show is created in draft status. It is NOT visible to customers yet. From the show's detail page, click Publish when you're ready to open sales.
You can also flip to sold out manually if needed, or back to draft, or cancelled (which uses the cancellation flow — don't manually flip to cancelled, use the button so customers get credit codes).
Sales-cutoff rule (FnF specific)
Sales close at Tuesday 23:59 of the show's week, in the show city's local timezone. This means:
- A Saturday show: sales close Tuesday before, 23:59 local
- A Sunday show: same Tuesday 23:59
- A weekday show: closes the previous Tuesday 23:59
Past that cutoff, the storefront will show the show as Sales Closed unless seats free up via cancellation (then "rescue window" reopens it until showtime).
If you're publishing a show with a date this week, sales may already be closed. The storefront won't show a Book button. If you want last-minute sales open, you can ask Matt to override.
Common mistakes
- Wrong date format. The form uses YYYY-MM-DD. Using month-first (US format) silently gets misinterpreted.
- Capacity = 0. Edge case; the storefront treats this as sold-out. If you want a hidden show without seats, leave it as draft.
- Forgetting to publish. Draft shows are hidden from the public site. If you've handed out a link to a draft show, customers see a 404.
- Picking the wrong film record. Some films have multiple variants in the search ("Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" vs "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"). Read carefully.
- Setting a time but not a date. The form requires both; if you only set a time, save will fail silently in some cases.
What to verify after publishing
- Open the storefront URL:
https://forknfilm.com/<city-slug>/<film-slug>→ confirm the show appears. - Click into the date page → confirm the Book button is active and the price displays correctly.
- If you ran a test booking, refund it from the order page so it doesn't count against capacity.
When to ask Matt
- The film isn't in the dropdown
- You want to set up a new city or a new venue
- The pricing tier structure doesn't match what you need
- You need to publish past the Tuesday cutoff