Request a Theater: how 1,383 fans told our booker where to book Brotherhood
When we started calling theaters about Brotherhood, the first question every booker asked was some version of "how many people want this here?" For a studio film the answer is a marketing budget. For us it was a guess.
So we built a page that turns the guess into a number. As of this week it has 1,383 theater requests on it, for 543 different theaters. Megaplex Vineyard alone has 44 people asking for it by name.
Here's how it works.
What a fan sees
A fan lands on the page from an email, a post or the end of a tour stop. One ask, in plain words: tell us where you want to see it.
They give their name, email and ZIP code. That's step one, and it's the most important part. The moment they hit the button, they're saved to our email list with their ZIP, so even someone who closes the tab right there still counts.
Then the page checks whether the film is already playing near them. If it is, they get a ticket button right there. Either way, they see the theaters within 40 miles and pick up to three they'd actually drive to.
Done. We promise to email them the day one of those theaters books the film, and we keep that promise automatically.
What your booker sees
This is the part that changed our conversations with theaters. Every request rolls up into a live feed: one row per theater, how many people asked, and when. No names, no email addresses. Our booker pulls it straight into a Google Sheet with one formula, and it updates itself.
Now a call to a theater can start with "44 people in Vineyard have asked for this film at your theater." That's a different call than "it's a really good movie."
You can try the real page at brotherhoodmovie.com/request.
Build your own
Craftsman Fellowship and Guild members get the full starter kit below: the actual code behind this page with everything specific to Brotherhood turned into settings, the prompt to paste into Claude, and a test plan. If you've done the setup from the toolkit post, this is about an hour.
Not a member yet? Here's the Fellowship. Every tool I build comes with it.
Daren
