🎟️

Beginner⏱️ about 30 minutes👣 6 steps

Movie Ticket Booking

Create a cinema seat booking system that shows free seats, stops double bookings and prints a receipt.

Lists
for loops
while loops
break
if / elif / else

🎯 What we're going to build

Have you ever booked seats at the cinema and watched the seat map change colour as other people grab the best spots? In this project you will build the program behind a tiny cinema called Python Cinema. The player sees which seats are free, picks the ones they want, and gets a receipt with the total price at the end.

This project is all about lists. A list lets one variable hold lots of values, like all the seat names in the cinema. You will use one list for every seat and a second list for the seats that have been booked, and you will move seats between them as the player makes choices.

You will also practise checking for mistakes. What happens if someone types a seat that doesn't exist, or tries to book a seat that is already taken? Your program will spot these problems and give a helpful message, just like a real booking website.

💡 How to use this guide: work through the steps in order and run your code after each one. Steps marked snippet are pieces that slot into the program you are building, so they won't run on their own. Programs that use input() need a Python editor such as IDLE, Thonny or Replit, where you can type your answers.

👣 Step by step

1
Make a list of seats
We store every seat name in a list, using square brackets with commas between the items. A second, empty list called booked will remember which seats have been taken. len() tells us how many items a list has.
🐍 Python
```
seats = ["A1", "A2", "A3", "A4", "B1", "B2", "B3", "B4"]
booked = []

print("🎬 Welcome to Python Cinema!")
print("We have", len(seats), "seats tonight.")
```
▶ Output
```
🎬 Welcome to Python Cinema!
We have 8 seats tonight.
```
2
Show only the free seats
A for loop visits every seat in the list, one at a time. For each seat, we check if it is not in the booked list. Using end=" " inside print() keeps everything on one line with spaces in between, instead of starting a new line each time.
🐍 Python
```
seats = ["A1", "A2", "A3", "A4", "B1", "B2", "B3", "B4"]
booked = ["A2", "B3"]

print("Free seats:", end=" ")
for seat in seats:
    if seat not in booked:
        print(seat, end=" ")
print()
```
▶ Output
```
Free seats: A1 A3 A4 B1 B2 B4 
```
3
Book a seat
We ask the player which seat they want. .upper() turns their answer into capital letters, so typing a1 works just as well as A1. Then .append() adds the seat to the end of the booked list.
🐍 Python
```
booked = []

choice = input("Pick a seat: ").upper()
booked.append(choice)

print("✅ Seat", choice, "is yours!")
print("Booked seats:", booked)
```
▶ Output
```
Pick a seat: a1
✅ Seat A1 is yours!
Booked seats: ['A1']
```

Check for mistakes

Before booking, we need to make sure the seat really exists and nobody else has it. We use if, elif and else to check each problem in turn. Only when both checks pass do we add the seat to the booked list.

🐍 Python

seats = ["A1", "A2", "A3", "A4", "B1", "B2", "B3", "B4"]
booked = ["A2"]

choice = input("Pick a seat: ").upper()

if choice not in seats:
    print("Hmm, that seat doesn't exist.")
elif choice in booked:
    print("Sorry, seat", choice, "is already taken.")
else:
    booked.append(choice)
    print("✅ Seat", choice, "is yours!")

▶ Output

Pick a seat: a2
Sorry, seat A2 is already taken.

5
Book lots of seats with a loop
Families often need more than one seat! while True: makes a loop that would go on forever, so we need a way out. When the player types done, the break command jumps straight out of the loop. Everything else in this step is the code you already wrote, now placed inside the loop.
🐍 Python
```
while True:
    choice = input("Pick a seat (or type done): ").upper()

    if choice == "DONE":
        break

    print("You picked", choice)

print("Finished booking!")
```
▶ Output
```
Pick a seat (or type done): b1
You picked B1
Pick a seat (or type done): b2
You picked B2
Pick a seat (or type done): done
Finished booking!
```
6
Print the receipt
When the loop ends, we show the player their seats and the total price. Each ticket costs 8 dollars, so we multiply the number of booked seats by the price. We use str() to turn the number into text so we can join it to the $ sign with +.
🐍 Python
```
booked = ["A1", "B2"]
price = 8

print("Your seats:", booked)
print("Total price: $" + str(len(booked) * price))
print("Enjoy the movie! 🍿")
```
▶ Output
```
Your seats: ['A1', 'B2']
Total price: $16
Enjoy the movie! 🍿
```

✅ The finished program

Here is the whole program with every step put together. If something isn't working in your version, compare it with this one line by line. Check the spelling, the colons at the end of if and while lines, and that the indentation (the spaces at the start of lines) matches.

🐍 Movie Ticket Booking

seats = ["A1", "A2", "A3", "A4", "B1", "B2", "B3", "B4"]
booked = []
price = 8

print("🎬 Welcome to Python Cinema!")
print("Tonight's movie: The Robot Who Loved Pizza")

while True:
    print()
    print("Free seats:", end=" ")
    for seat in seats:
        if seat not in booked:
            print(seat, end=" ")
    print()

    choice = input("Pick a seat (or type done): ").upper()

    if choice == "DONE":
        break
    elif choice not in seats:
        print("Hmm, that seat doesn't exist.")
    elif choice in booked:
        print("Sorry, seat", choice, "is already taken.")
    else:
        booked.append(choice)
        print("✅ Seat", choice, "is yours!")

print()
print("Your seats:", booked)
print("Total price: $" + str(len(booked) * price))
print("Enjoy the movie! 🍿")

🖥️ Sample run

This is what it looks like when someone plays. The words after each question are what the player typed.

▶ Output

🎬 Welcome to Python Cinema!
Tonight's movie: The Robot Who Loved Pizza

Free seats: A1 A2 A3 A4 B1 B2 B3 B4 
Pick a seat (or type done): a2
✅ Seat A2 is yours!

Free seats: A1 A3 A4 B1 B2 B3 B4 
Pick a seat (or type done): B3
✅ Seat B3 is yours!

Free seats: A1 A3 A4 B1 B2 B4 
Pick a seat (or type done): A2
Sorry, seat A2 is already taken.

Free seats: A1 A3 A4 B1 B2 B4 
Pick a seat (or type done): C9
Hmm, that seat doesn't exist.

Free seats: A1 A3 A4 B1 B2 B4 
Pick a seat (or type done): done

Your seats: ['A2', 'B3']
Total price: $16
Enjoy the movie! 🍿

🚀 Make it your own

Finished? Brilliant! Real programmers are always improving their programs. Try one of these challenges to make the project truly yours.

⭐Add a third row of seats (C1 to C4) to make the cinema bigger.
⭐Stop the player booking when the cinema is full. (Hint: compare len(booked) with len(seats).)
⭐Let the player cancel a seat by typing cancel, then use booked.remove() to give it back.
⭐Make row A the VIP row that costs 12 dollars, while row B stays at 8. Work out the correct total.

📚 Lessons that help

Stuck on a step? These lessons explain the Python ideas used in this project.

📋Lists 🔁Loops 🛑Break, Continue & Nested Loops 🤔If / Else 🔤Strings

← Back to all projects

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Movie Ticket Booking

🎯 What we're going to build

👣 Step by step

Make a list of seats

Show only the free seats

Book a seat

Check for mistakes

Book lots of seats with a loop

Print the receipt

✅ The finished program

🖥️ Sample run

🚀 Make it your own

📚 Lessons that help

Movie Ticket Booking

🎯 What we're going to build

👣 Step by step

Make a list of seats

Show only the free seats

Book a seat

Check for mistakes

Book lots of seats with a loop

Print the receipt

✅ The finished program

🖥️ Sample run

🚀 Make it your own

📚 Lessons that help