NZ Cinemas

Goal

Query live New Zealand cinema locations, current movies, and session times through a small deterministic CLI with human-readable and JSON output, without browser automation, login, or booking actions.

Use this when

• A user asks what movies are showing at a New Zealand cinema
• A user wants session times for a movie in New Zealand
• A user asks for locations for Event Cinemas, HOYTS, Reading Cinemas, Rialto, or Berkeley Mission Bay
• A workflow needs lightweight machine-readable NZ cinema showtime data
• A user needs a fast read-only alternative to browser-driven cinema lookup

Do not use this for

• Booking tickets, selecting seats, placing orders, refunds, payments, member accounts, vouchers, or loyalty actions
• Cinemas outside New Zealand
• Historical showtime claims unless another dataset provides history
• High-volume scraping or republishing cinema schedules as a dataset
• Price comparisons; the implemented endpoints focus on movies, cinemas, and sessions

Preferred workflow

1. Run scripts/cli.py with the narrowest subcommand that answers the task
2. Use cinemas to resolve a cinema name, slug, or source id
3. Use movies --cinema <name> before sessions when the movie id is unknown
4. Use sessions <movie-id> --date YYYY-MM-DD --cinema <name> for showtimes
5. Use nowplaying --cinema <name> for a same-day cinema view
6. Use --json for agent chaining, comparisons, or structured reports
7. Mention that showtimes are live unofficial snapshots and can change at the source

CLI

Run with:

python3 skills/nz-cinemas/scripts/cli.py <command> [flags]

Commands

• cinemas [--chain event|hoyts|reading|rialto|berkley] [--region text] [--json] - list cinema locations
• movies [--chain event|hoyts|reading|rialto|berkley] [--cinema <name-or-id>] [--date YYYY-MM-DD] [--limit N] [--json] - current movies playing
• sessions <movie-id> [--chain event|hoyts|reading|rialto|berkley] [--date YYYY-MM-DD] [--cinema <name-or-id>] [--limit N] [--json] - showtimes for a movie id, title, slug, or alternate source id
• nowplaying [--chain event|hoyts|reading|rialto|berkley] [--cinema <name-or-id>] [--date YYYY-MM-DD] [--limit N] [--json] - sessions playing on a date

Examples:

python3 skills/nz-cinemas/scripts/cli.py cinemas --chain hoyts --region Auckland
python3 skills/nz-cinemas/scripts/cli.py movies --chain hoyts --cinema "Berkeley Mission Bay" --json
python3 skills/nz-cinemas/scripts/cli.py nowplaying --chain reading --cinema LynnMall --json
python3 skills/nz-cinemas/scripts/cli.py sessions "Star Wars" --chain event --cinema "Queen Street" --date 2026-05-24
python3 skills/nz-cinemas/scripts/cli.py sessions HO00008315 --chain hoyts --cinema "Berkeley Mission Bay" --json

Resources

• CLI entrypoint: scripts/cli.py
• API and stability notes: references/api-notes.md

Notes

• No username, password, account cookie, private token, or browser session is required
• The Reading Cinemas site exposes a public short-lived bearer token from its no-login settings endpoint; the CLI fetches it fresh and does not persist it
• berkley maps to HOYTS Berkeley Mission Bay, because the public current site exposes it through HOYTS rather than a separate Berkley API
• Event Cinemas and Rialto share the same EVT/Vista-style session endpoint shape
• Endpoint shapes can change; verify with a small live query before relying on large workflows
• Booking URLs are returned only as source references; do not automate booking, cart, seat, payment, refund, or account flows