Editorial Policy

What we publish

Movies In Theaters covers films in US cinemas: what opens each week, release dates, showtimes and tickets, box office, reviews and features, and where a film goes to stream after its theatrical run. Every article is written to answer a specific question a moviegoer has, such as "is it worth seeing in theaters?" or "when does it open near me?", and is published under our own name with a date.

Who writes it

Articles are written by our editorial team (bylined "the Movies In Theaters team") or by contributing writers, who are bylined by name and have an author page. Contributors apply through Write for us; every piece they submit is read and edited by an editor before it is published, and an editor can return it with notes or decline it.

How we research

• Release dates, cast and crew come from studio and distributor announcements and from The Movie Database (TMDB).
• Streaming availability comes from JustWatch (via TMDB) and from the streaming services' own announcements, and is checked again before publishing.
• Where a date is not confirmed, we say so plainly and explain how we estimated it, for example from the usual gap between a studio's theatrical release and its streaming debut.
• When we rely on another outlet's reporting, we name it and link to it.
• Streaming and release articles are updated when dates are confirmed or change, and the updated date is shown.

Use of AI tools

Editors may use AI tools to help with research notes, outlines or a first draft built from structured movie data. AI output is never published as-is: a person checks every fact against the sources above, rewrites the text, adds the analysis, and is responsible for the final article. We do not publish automatically generated articles.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it as quickly as we can. Significant corrections (a wrong date, name or fact a reader could rely on) are noted at the end of the article. To report an error, email [email protected] or use the "Correction" option on our contact page.

Movie data, scores and critic excerpts

• Movie pages use data and images from TMDB, and streaming availability from JustWatch. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
• Audience score is the average of ratings by registered Movies In Theaters users.
• Critic reviews show the publication, the critic's name, a short excerpt and a link to the full review on the publisher's site. We do not republish full reviews. The critic score is the share of those reviews counted as positive: we use the critic's own rating when the excerpt includes one, and otherwise an automatic reading of the excerpt's tone, so treat it as a rough guide and read the reviews themselves.
• Industry headlines in our news feed are short summaries from other outlets, clearly labelled with the source and linking to the original article. Our own articles are listed first.

Independence and advertising

The site is paid for by advertising. Advertisers have no say over what we write, and we do not accept payment for reviews, scores or coverage. Ads are always visually separate from editorial content. Some ticket or streaming links may be affiliate links; they never decide what we cover or recommend.

User reviews

Registered users can rate films and post reviews. They are the users' own opinions, not ours. We remove reviews that break our Terms of Service, such as spam, harassment or illegal content.