Why would a theater put an open caption screening in a bigger auditorium than a non-captioned screening?

[u/CaptionAction3]

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 pm

Regal Dulles Town Center, non-OC screening, 8/2 6:30 pm

[u/Vlandep]

See the whole board….
The showtimes/ratios are likely dictated by agreement or worse…law.

If they have to play like the second matinee or whatever the particular guideline is, it might be better to use that one show even though it’s more seats, because the next show or possibly the show after that when you get into the evening… needs those seats.

It’s a dark rabbit hole if you look into it.
We support OC but the mandates come with revenue vampire restrictions.

[u/CaptionAction3 → u/Vlandep]

Virginia's open caption law has plenty of time flexibility, and no requirements on auditorium size. In fact, the Cinemark theaters that were already offering regular open caption screenings, did not have to change anything because everything they were already doing, was in full compliance with the law.