I Built a Home Cinema Booking App Because My Girlfriend Couldn’t Get a Look in…

I used to love going to the cinema, but as I’ve gotten older (and clearly grumpier), I get easily annoyed by people talking, using their phones or rustling their popcorn and snacks throughout a film I’ve paid good money to see.

A year ago, I decided to build my own home cinema room and I’m loving it. However, I seem to keep forgetting that my girlfriend might also want to visit my cinema from time to time. Although I said she could come and watch a film whenever she wanted, it just didn’t seem to happen.

When she brought this up, I jokingly said she should book a ticket. She laughed it off, but that gave me an idea. What if I built something that would do exactly that?

A Small but Perfectly Formed Home Cinema

I’ve got a small but perfectly formed home cinema room, with a 106-inch projector screen, a 7.3.4 speaker setup and a nice comfy sofa. It really does create the feeling of being at the cinema, just without the annoying people!

So I Built a Cinema Booking App

It’s a bit of fun, but now we can both book a film, choose our seats, order snacks and get a personalised cinema ticket, all from an app I built called One Row.

We’d been wanting to watch Project Hail Mary for ages but never seemed to lock in a date. So last week we booked the film, set a time, sorted the snacks and actually sat down and watched it. Together.

Afterwards, we both left our reviews and had a chat about the film.

It Turns Out It’s Actually Quite Useful

I originally built One Row as a bit of a joke, but I’m now finding it genuinely useful for managing my film library and scheduling time for friends and family to use the room.

I’ve also added a few more features along the way, including the ability to keep track of films on Blu-ray, streaming services or a media server, invite guests and send them their own tickets.

You can even scan tickets when people arrive, and add personal notes to the back so you’ve got a little keepsake of the night.

And while I built it for my own home cinema, you don’t need a dedicated room to use it. A TV and a sofa will do just fine.

One Row is currently in beta testing for iPhone, so if anyone fancies giving it a go, you can find out more at onerowcinema.com.

At least my girlfriend can now book a ticket to my cinema. Whether I remember to put the popcorn on is another matter.