Blue Cinema
Visit bluecinema.ch
Background
Blue Cinema, operated by Blue Entertainment AG (a Swisscom company), is one of Switzerland’s most prominent cinema networks. With dozens of venues, regular events, and a deeply loyal moviegoing audience, the brand plays a central role in the country's entertainment landscape. As their digital presence became more critical to customer engagement, the limitations of their existing platform started holding them back. The site was powered by a rigid legacy CMS that offered little editorial autonomy, marketing teams couldn’t update regional content, launch campaigns, or adjust promotions without developer support. Even simple changes required technical assistance, creating delays and operational bottlenecks. Meanwhile, ticket booking, session data, pricing logic, and membership benefits all relied on real-time API feeds that had to be constantly pulled and refreshed. On the user side, mobile visitors faced friction in discovering content and completing purchases, an experience misaligned with modern expectations. Recognizing the need for not just a redesign but a strategic overhaul, Blue Cinema partnered with Centralsoft to lead a full replatforming effort. Over the course of nearly a year, we rebuilt the experience behind bluecinema.ch, integrating a more flexible CMS, modular frontend architecture, and seamless API handling. The result was a future-proof platform capable of scaling with the business while delivering a faster, more intuitive user journey.
Product description
Centralsoft led the full transformation of bluecinema.ch, from the content backbone to the customer-facing interface. At the foundation, we migrated their editorial workflows to Livingdocs, a headless CMS designed for flexibility and speed. Editors and content managers now have full autonomy to publish and manage localized pages, seasonal campaigns, and dynamic content without technical support. All components were structured as reusable modules ensuring brand consistency, fast time-to-market, and minimal reliance on developers. On the frontend, we engineered a modern architecture that integrates seamlessly with multiple internal APIs. Real-time movie listings, seat availability, pricing logic, and membership benefits are now dynamically pulled and displayed per region. The ticket booking experience was rebuilt entirely, with a clear, responsive flow tailored for mobile usage making it easier for users to explore offers, select showtimes, and complete transactions within seconds. In addition, we introduced a robust account section where users can track past bookings, manage rewards, and view their membership tier and benefits, all consolidated into an intuitive digital wallet. Special attention was given to performance, responsiveness, and fallback handling, ensuring a smooth experience even when APIs are under strain or delivering inconsistent data. Ultimately, the new platform equips Blue Cinema with the tools to operate faster, scale campaigns effortlessly, and deliver a seamless experience to thousands of users, whether they’re browsing from a phone, tablet, or desktop. What began as a redesign evolved into a strategic upgrade, making bluecinema.ch a future-ready digital hub for Switzerland’s cinema lovers.
Problems
- Rigid legacy CMS made content updates slow and overly technical
- Frequent changes in data structure and API response required adaptability
- Booking flows weren’t intuitive on mobile and caused user drop-off
- Stakeholder needs evolved during the project, requiring ongoing iteration
- Complex routing for different cinemas, languages, and membership logic
Solutions
- Migrated to Livingdocs, enabling fast, flexible content creation
- Built a React-based frontend that combines CMS and real-time API views seamlessly
- Designed a modular system ready for new features, campaigns, and future app integration
- Reimagined the order process from the user’s perspective, across all devices
- Delivered a platform that adapts to data, business needs, and user expectations
If it’s complex, we’re interested.
Whether you wish to launch a new app or website, integrate something new into your system or plan to increase capacity and efficiency with external support - we are excited to hear from you!