Movies App

I find myself continually coming back to a solution for a simple and streamlined movie showtimes app, as it seems to be the most lacking category in terms of quality offerings on the app store. Flixster is extremely powerful and packed with features, but I find the design lacking as well as the ability to quickly jump in and out of it (similar to the way I use apps like weather).

My idea is to have a 'card'-style interface where the movies playing nearby are represented primarily by their posters. I love movie posters and think they're fantastically interesting pieces of design and art, and find it's a shame they're not used more prominently in existing movie apps.

I've also been experimenting with UIs that match interface colors to content (inspired by iTunes 11's album view), and applied that here in order to show the small bit of information I most commonly want for a movie- 'where and when is this it playing next?' The app would allow you to specify a favorite theater you frequent, or have it automatically select the closest/most popular theater. Of course you can also then tap a poster to flip it over and view all the showtimes info as well as a bit more movie info.

Currently the biggest obstacle I face in building/releasing something like this is a source for the showtimes data. It's not readily available, and so far the only company I've found that provides it in API form charges staggeringly high amounts of money for access. So if anyone knows of any affordable data sources, by all means let me know!

Also check out the attached full size mockup for examples of the adaptive color as well as the flip-side view.