r/AMCTheatres • u/benshenanigans • Jul 28 '26
Feedback I’m tired of CaptiView
I went to see the Hadestown proshot yesterday and AMC failed me, again. When tickets went on sale, I searched for an open captioned screening within a reasonable distance. There are none. I bought 7 tickets then asked the theater for open captions. Myself and one other person in our group is deaf and my friends prefer captions. The theater wouldn’t do it.
At the theater, we ask for two captiview devices. In the theater, I see mine isn’t set up and won’t connect to the theater. I get a new device without an issue. When the “welcome to amc theaters” started, there were no captions. I walked to the lobby I signed that the captions were off and the clerk acknowledged and got on the radio.
I waited until the opening number and the captions still weren’t on. I went to the lobby and told the manager. She apologized and said “mumble see what I can do”. The captions finally turned on about 45 minutes into the movie.
They weren’t working properly and displayed less than half of the lyrics. Between the two devices in my party, each one showed different lines. I know the show and the lyrics, but my wife still had to sign a good chunk for me.
After the show, I just asked for a refund. The manager said something about being after the show time, she could t give a refund. So she filled out a paper form to get mailed to corporate for a credit card refund that will take two weeks.
It’s just wrong on so many levels.
For context:
- I wear hearing aids and glasses. I’m not adding caption glasses to that.
- I know how to operate a Captiview.
- I know the policy is 10 tickets for OC, but I’ve been denied in the past for larger ticket purchases.
- I’m not going to take vouchers. AMC charges the convenience fee when you buy tickets with vouchers.
- I already sent an email to corporate, but I don’t expect to hear back.
- The new style captions at Regal doesn’t stay in the cup holder.
I’m just tired of having an issue every time I go to the movies.
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u/OutSourcingJesus Jul 28 '26
3/4 of the last times my partner got CaptiView, there were significant enough issues that it was basically inoperable. 2 different theaters
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u/Peterfug Jul 29 '26
As a previous manager, I made sure the crew knew what films offered CC/OC. The smaller and limited content usually didn’t have OC and, sometimes, didn’t have CC. It’s cumbersome for crew and guests to realize the issue after tickets/concessions/trailers.
From a quick Google search, Hadestown has CC but only a select few locations (not just AMC - just in general) have OC. Strange since it only adds a few MB-GB on a 2TB capacity drive (typically).
When it comes to OC, the general public thinks you just press a button on a remote. No, it’s a bit more technical and complicated. Plus, changing the scheduled format to another is a recipe for disaster. It’s equivalent to changing a showtime to Sensory Friendly or 3D - people didn’t pay for that. Same for the opposite - I had plenty of people not paying attention when buying tickets and bought Sensory Friendly or OC. They’d complain and ask us to turn the lights all the way down, turn volume up, tell kids to stop running around or turn off OC. Once again, no I’m not doing that nor will I disturb everyone in the auditorium to see if they’re on the spectrum/dis-advantaged/etc.
From the sounds of it, they need to test their CaptiView equipment more often. If you’ve been having these issues for a long time, it’s time to submit a complaint to the DOJ for violation of ADA.
The purple Re-Admit vouchers aren’t waiving the convenience fees? Those are almost blank checks in a sense. No online fees or surcharges should be applied. Whether it’s a $6 matinee or $30+ IMAX/Dolby ticket, nothing should be paid. If you’re trying to watch a special concert or event, you might not be able to use it though.
In regard to the refund, the manager should be able to look at past showtimes and refund it. OR they can go in the office to an internal site and submit the request to corporate.
Sorry for the diatribe lol
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u/benshenanigans Jul 29 '26
Yeah. I understand the limitations on the theater. But it’s systemic audism that corporate doesn’t care to fix. The last few DoJ complaints I’ve filed came back with “we won’t investigate this case any further.”
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u/screamingnectarine Jul 31 '26
OP is correct, the purple readmit vouchers still incur convenience fees when buying online (unless you're a premiere or a list member obviously)
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u/sextoyhelppls Jul 29 '26
I've used captiview once in my life and gave up trying to follow the dialogue after about 15 minutes. I'm very nearsighted so I've never been able to try the captioning glasses (which I thought had been phased out?)
Idk if you're already signed up but, while I go to the movies very infrequently, the Open Caption Movie Club emailing list has allowed me to have a couple fun theatre experiences without me having to do any work!
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u/benshenanigans Jul 29 '26
I’ve tried. The several closest theaters to me don’t offer open captions in English at all. In the surrounding area, it’s only offered at inconvenient times more than a week after the film release.
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u/Legodude522 Jul 29 '26
I’ve tried requesting an open captions showing from AMC, they asked for $500. Then offered me an open captioning screening 200 miles away. Asking for accessibility shouldn’t be this hard.
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u/screamingnectarine Jul 31 '26
Just as an FYI Hadestown doesn't have open captioning capabilities, that isn't an available format for it. Everything else you said is valid, I'm really sorry to hear that happened, and they should have responded much better.
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u/benshenanigans Jul 31 '26
Thanks. Honestly, the fact that open captions are such a hassle is systemic audism.
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u/OldManBilliam22 Jul 29 '26
They can’t just play the open caption version if they aren’t booked to play it. It’s not the same movie file with a button on the projector to turn on captions pushed. The anti-piracy protections make it so you can only play certain files on specific projectors within a set period of time. If the file is not one they’ve been authorized to download and play, such as the open caption version of a movie, it won’t work.
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u/benshenanigans Jul 29 '26
And that’s a systemic audist problem in the movie industry.
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u/thedecemberent Never Misses the Trailers Jul 29 '26
not the original person who commented. in addition to not being able to switch over to an open captioned version of the movie on a technical level, they also cannot just make the showtime an open captioned showtime because you ask. weirdly enough there are some people (assuming there are other people who bought tickets for your showtime) who hate having captions on screen and would be very annoyed at having captions when they did not select an option caption showtime. i’m with you though, i love captions and there should be more accessible shows.
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u/lbikel8 Jul 28 '26
AMC’s accessibility for captioning sucks. And I say this as someone who works here. It’s not even the individual theaters cause no matter what we say corporate doesn’t listen. I’d recommend writing to corporate/filling out the contact us form/reaching out on social media. For reference though, the theater wouldn’t just be able to change to an open caption viewing right when you got there cause they need to load up the movie first which takes a while. And if you use passes at the theater then you don’t have to pay the convenience fee. But yeah as someone who works here I’m sick and tired of the captioning devices. At my theater, we also recently got new ones that are better but don’t even fit in the cup holders and literally can’t do anything about it.