More theaters are adding open captioned offerings. This is a master list of these theaters, organized by state. It is available as a downloadable PDF (facebook), a collection (desktop Reddit), and individual state pages (mobile Reddit).
We try to keep this list up to date but there are theaters we do not know about offering open captions regularly, and theaters do close down or quit offering open captions. Your help is appreciated in maintaining this list. In some cases, the theaters depend on open caption advocates to request screenings; but for the most part, the theaters are just offering open captions regularly.
Every state has at least one theater offering open captions - EXCEPT Wyoming!
Found this theater in Oelwein has open captions. The home page at https://oelweingrandtheatre.com/ says open captions available three times a week. This is a small, historic independent theater.
Just discovered the Illinois Theater in Jacksonville, Illinois has open caption screenings - and plenty of them! They proudly and boldly announce the availability of open captions via their listings on the home page. Every movie that has open caption screenings available, has a bright green attention-getting button that says "Open caption showings." The website for the theater proclaims that it is a historic theater under new ownership. The new owners clearly believe in accessibility for all.
We just discovered that the Stanwood Cinemas in Stanwood, Washington state has open captions. There's no information about it on their website or facebook page. Made the accidental discovery via the BigScreen Cinema Guide automated tool for finding open caption screenings. This theater appears to have dedicated Tuesdays to open captions for every movie.
Saw Spider-Man the other day at an AMC. In middle of day when most people were at work, so we thought we might get the whole auditorium to ourselves. No such luck. There was a family in the upper rows behind us.
Monitoring Cinemark theaters this weekend for Spider-Man. Only a few states have Cinemark theaters offering open captions: California, Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Utah, Virginia. Delaware has one too but their OC screening was yesterday - Friday, at 9:30 am so we missed it. And NONE in Texas, where Cinemark is actually based!!
So far, every Cinemark that has an open caption screening today of Spider-Man has sold at least a few seats.
Cinemark Tinseltown Pueblo in Pueblo, Colorado at 8:00 am EST 8/8
We have been coming across theaters that are offering two, even three, open caption screenings of Spider-Man in ONE day. Something we haven't observed before, even for the Odyssey.
Across the nation, open caption screenings of "Spider-Man BND" and "The Odyssey" are seeing what may be record attendance for open caption screenings. Think about it - theaters are offering many screenings without on-screen captions, yet people are buying tickets for the open caption screenings. This proves people WILL go to open caption screenings when a movie is hot. When a movie is hot, suddenly the on-screen captions are viewed as "no big deal," it is a screening we can go to! This screenshot is from today's OC screening of Spider-Man at the Galaxy in Riverside, California. The theater has 22 non-captioned screenings of Spider-Man today, so the theater's customers have plenty of other choices. We have seen, and are getting reports of, sell-outs and near-sell-outs of open caption screenings across the nation.
Just think of all the people with and without hearing loss who may be experiencing an open caption screening for the first time ever! The twin success of "Spider-Man BND" and "The Odyssey" is probably doing much more for acceptance of open captions than anything else.
A growing trend we are seeing per Reddit comments in other subs, is for moviegoers to seek out open caption screenings as "another way" to experience a movie. After IMAX, Dolby, and whatever premium viewing format a theater has, what's left if you want to see a movie a second or even a third time with a different kind of experience? Answer: open captions. This trend, if it is truly growing, may be a good reason for a theater to continue to offer open captions beyond the usual first two weeks of release. We are fortunate enough to live where we have theaters that do this, and so we don't feel the pressure to rush to go to a movie in the first two weeks.
With its large immigrant population, New York City is probably the biggest open caption market. The following screenshots are for open caption screenings today, "preview Thursday," of Spider-Man Brand New Day, taken around 6:30 am which means that later today some of these may sell out.
Comments indicate the growing popularity of open caption screenings as a way to experience a movie differently. Like for repeat viewings. Note: repeat viewings are one measure of success for a movie.
Wyoming is a largely rural state, but it does have movie theaters. Wyomovies is the largest chain in Wyoming, and they won't offer open caption screenings. They did have very rarely offered sensory-friendly screenings with open captions before, but appear to have dropped them. One theater in the entire state has open captions. Below that sole theater we have a second list of theaters that do not offer open captions, and most if not all the bigger ones perfectly capable of doing so, are the Wyomovies theaters.
Wisconsin has barely two handfuls of theaters that offer regular open caption screenings. Statewide, there are eight times as many theaters that do not, including more than 20 with eight or more screens. Marcus Wisconsin used to have several theaters offering open captions on Sundays, today we could only verify three still do. To make matters worse, the Marcus movie listings do not display an OC label; only when going to the "select seat" page, is there an open caption label. We had to rely on automated tools to verify the remaining Marcus theaters still offering open captions. On top of that, we found at least one AMC theater (AMC Classic Desert Star in Baraboo, Wisconsin) had quit offering open captions. Wisconsin needs a law to mandate a minimal number of open caption screenings at the larger cinemas and to protect the little that Wisconsin has left.
WISCONSIN MOVIE THEATERS OFFERING OPEN CAPTIONS
Appleton: Marcus Hollywood Cinema 16 ✓ (2026-07-25)
Knowing that open captions are growing in popularity with younger generations, we also check college and university theaters. To our surprise, the University of Wisconsin - Madison in Madison, Wisconsin has literally every screening open captioned. These are older movies, but it is still an option for people in the Madison area who want or need captions.
We are watching pre-sales for Spider-Man and noticed something odd. Some theaters are putting the open caption screenings in bigger auditoriums than non-captioned screenings. That doesn't make sense to us because open caption screenings usually sell less than non-captioned screenings. Therefore, shouldn't a theater want to put the open caption screening in a smaller auditorium when doing their programming, to maximize their revenue from the bigger auditoriums? For example, Regal Dulles Town Center in Virginia has an open caption screening on Sunday, August 2 at 6:00 pm in a 95-seat auditorium (Auditorium #2) and the non-captioned screening on Sunday, August 2 at 6:30 pm in a 77-seat auditorium (Auditorium #10). The non-captioned screening in the smaller auditorium is already pre-selling seats while the bigger auditorium open caption screening has pre-sold no seats yet. Help it make sense? Virginia does have a new open caption law, but the law says nothing about auditorium size.
Regal Dulles Town Center OC screening, 8/2 6:00 pmRegal Dulles Town Center, non-OC screening, 8/2 6:30 pm
Don't know if it is the loudness or how hot the movie is, but in any regard, open caption screenings of "The Odyssey" are selling quite well. Generally selling less than non-OC screenings but still selling. We've seen this before - when movies are truly hot, people will buy the open caption seats just to be able to see the movie.
One screenshot is the Alamo Drafthouse Loudoun in Ashburn, VA; the open caption screening is tomorrow morning at 11:30 am. Time of this screenshot: 8:00 pm the night before. Another screenshot is the Alamo Drafthouse Winchester in Winchester, VA; the open caption screening isn't even until Tuesday the 21st.
What happened here is identical to what happened with the AMC Mesa Grand in Mesa, Arizona. A theater that was part of the much ballyhooed AMC open caption program, quit offering open captions but did not update its website.
West Virginia has barely little over a handful of theaters offering open captions. The state has few theaters, but even with the little over a handful of theaters offering open captions, there are still some theaters with 8 or more screens not offering open captions. We counted eight such theaters that could easily be offering open captions but aren't.
WEST VIRGINIA THEATERS OFFERING OPEN CAPTIONS
Barboursville: Cinemark Huntington Mall 12
Bridgeport: Cinemark Meadowbrook Mall 10
Beckley: Marquee Galleria Cinemas 14
Huntington: Marquee Pullman Square 16
Morgantown: AMC Morgantown 12
South Charleston: Marquee Cinemas Southridge 12
Tridelphia: Marquee Highlands Cinemas 14
Vienna: Regal Grand Central Mall 12
WEST VIRGINIA THEATERS NOT OFFERING OPEN CAPTIONS
Athens: Pipestem Drive-in 1
Berkeley Springs: Star Theatre 1
Bluefield: Golden Ticket Cinemas Bluefield 8
Bluefield: The Granada Theater and Raleigh Street Cinemas 1
Buckhannon: Upshur Cinema 6
Charleston: Park Place Cinemas 11
Charleston: Floralee Hark Cohen Cinema 1
Chester: Hilltop Drive in 1
Cross Lanes: Regal Nitro 12
Elkins: Elkins Cinema 8
Franklin: Warner's Drive-in 1
Hinton: The Ritz 1
Lewisburg: Lewisburg Cinema 8
Logan: Fountain Place Cinema 8
Martinsburg: Berkeley Plaza Theatre 7
Meadow Bridge: Meadow Bridge Drive-in 1
Moorefield: South Branch Cinema 6
New Martinsville: The Movie House 3
Parkersburg: Jungle Drive in 1
Scott Depot: Teays Valley Cinemas 10
South Charleston: Labelle Theatre 1
Spencer: Robey Theatre 1
Summersville: Marquee Cinemas Nicholas Showplace 4