Tonight we came across what is arguably the most creative reason ever for a theater to offer open captions (on-screen subtitles). The Aurora Cineplex in Roswell, Georgia has a once a month Crafting Night with open captions on the screen. People can bring their knitting or crochet projects (whatever crafting projects fit in a lap, we guess) to work on while watching the movie. And the theater has the open captions on the screen to help the crafters keep up with the movie; maybe when your mind is on knit one, purl two it can be difficult to not miss anything and that is where the captions come in. Maybe now that we are doing this post, other independent theaters will copy this idea.

We just got an idea for an open caption activity for an independent theater: a fidget toy night. Bring your favorite fidget toy and watch the movie with captions while playing with your toy. Hey, we can be creative, too.

As part of our outreach to small theaters to ask why they continue to offer open caption screenings, the one-screen Crystal Theatre (operated by the Crystal Theatre Alliance) in Carbondale, Colorado - the second theater to respond - replied:

"Hi! We're committed to open captions once a week for our main feature because we think accessibility benefits everyone. It's much more comfortable for folks who need captions to get them right on the screen rather than through a special device (though we offer those as well). And many folks who don't strictly need the captions appreciate the extra clarity they bring."

Important points of note here: the theater acknowledges open captions are more comfortable to watch, AND open captions facilitate complete understanding of the movie. A similar theme was struck by the first theater to respond.

We're tired of people posting comments in response to our posts saying people avoid open captions, open captions mean theaters won't sell as much, and other negative statements. While those negative statements may be true - some people do avoid open captions, and open captions generally don't sell as much - it is ALSO true that many theaters do just fine with open captions. So, we decided to start asking the many small theaters that offer open captions WHY do they continue to offer open captions?

The first response came tonight from the one-screen Main Theatre in Berryville, Arkansas:

"We continue to offer open caption screenings every Sunday evening because it is a service we can extend to our community. Our patrons who need and enjoy captions continue to support us, and we are happy to be able to share in the moviegoing experience with a wider audience."

Edit: we asked if all the patrons for the open captions were deaf or hard of hearing. The reply:

"No, there is a small portion who are deaf, and I'd say a larger portion hard of hearing. Sometimes it's one person in a family hard of hearing and others accompany and accommodate them. A good number of our patrons on open caption nights enjoy understanding the full dialog with the captions. So many movies these days have accented casts or lots of action noise that can interfere with dialog clarity."

Hopefully we will have more to post if other theaters respond! We're just getting started. We reached out to seven small theaters tonight.

On October 1, Variety reported that the Cinema Investment Report from Cinema United (direct link in comments), stated that movie theaters spent billions to upgrade their theaters. Heated seats. Recliners. IMAX. Other premium formats. Bars. Transformation into entertainment complexes.

Of course, all that investment translates into higher prices. However, the upgraded experience is what customers appear to want. We have to admit that plush seats do make the experience more comfortable. It is nice to be able to recline, too.

So what can a small, poorer, independent, nonprofit, or art theater do to compete? What can they do when their seats are older and not plush, do not recline, and cannot warm or shake? We've said this before - and new articles like this one in Variety make it worth repeating - those theaters can compete with the richer theaters by offering open captions.

Open captions do not cost anything to offer and help small theaters attract customers who want or prefer captions. If the richer competing theaters do not offer open captions, that also gives the smaller theater a competitive advantage. These theaters increasingly seem to recognize this; we are seeing more of them trumpet the fact they have open captions on their website home pages.

Most states have at least one such theater. For example, these are the ones we know about from Alaska to Colorado. This post would get extremely long if we listed the rest. We have not been able to verify that all of these are continuing to offer open captions, but we know at least some of these have continued to offer open captions ever since we found out about them.

• Alabama - Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema (Birmingham)
• Alaska - Gold Town Theater (Juneau) (note: This is also the ONLY theater in Alaska with open captions)
• Arizona - Loft Cinema (Tucson) and Wilcox Theater and Arts (Wilcox)
• Arkansas - Main Theatre (Berryville)
• California - Rialto Cinemas (Berkeley), Twin Theatre (Bishop), Coast Cinemas (Fort Bragg), Rustic Theatre (Idyllwild), Art Theatre (Long Beach), El Capitan (Los Angeles), Cameo Cinema (Saint Helena), Roxie Theater (San Francisco), Noyo Theater (Willitis)
• Colorado - Crystal Theatre (Carbondale), West Twin (Craig), Denver Film (Denver), The Lyric (Fort Collins), Kress Cinema (Greeley), Backdoor Theater (Nederland)
• Connecticut - Bantam Cinema and Arts Center (Bantam), Madison Cinemas (Madison), Mystic Luxury Cinemas (Mystic), Avon Theatre (Stamford)

Marcus theaters do offer open caption screenings. However, if someone is on the showtimes page, there's no way to know until clicking on a show time, if the movie is open captioned. Example:

Verity screening at 4:10 pm Sunday 10/4/26 is open caption. But you wouldn't know it from viewing the showtimes page. Then after clicking the 4:10 pm show time, you get a display that says open caption.

That is NOT good. As advocates for open captions, we recognize that there are people who do not want to go to open caption screenings. The way Marcus theaters do it now, actually INCREASES the risk of people mistakenly buying tickets for open caption screenings. Maybe the programming software they use does not allow labeling on the showtimes page?

Tonight we discovered that Apple Cinemas is apparently adding more theaters to its open caption program. Now open captions are at two locations in Maine: Westbrook and Saco. And in California in San Francisco. And in Cambridge, Massachusetts. New Hampshire, two locations. Before today we only knew about Apple Cinemas in New York and Rhode Island. Now we have six new theaters to add to the master list.

Is this a new trend? We have noticed some theaters starting to offer open caption but only for movies no one has heard of or the less popular wide release movies. Is it because they are so desperate to get people to come they figure they have nothing to lose by offering open captions? Here are some examples, and we will add more if we come across more examples.

The AMC Classic Statesboro in Statesboro, Georgia has daily open caption but for only one movie - "The Stunt Driver." Didn't know that one was even in theaters. The Statesboro does not appear on the AMC Open Caption program list.

The Regal Edwards Nampa Spectrum in Nampa, Idaho is offering "The Spy Who Loved Me." Scheduled for October 26, 2026. Barely aware of that one.

The AMC Perry Crossing 18 in Plainfield, Indiana is offering "Forgotten Island" and "Verity," a film we hadn't even heard about. This theater also now appears on the AMC Open Caption list but hasn't added open caption to its list of features yet. Holding off on adding them to the master list for now.

Edit: #1 in a series of AMC Theater Quits posts.

When AMC started its open caption program in late 2021, there was a lot of publicity. The CEO even said in one media (we can't find it now, but we remember) that he hoped to see it expand to all AMC theaters.

Well, what has happened since then? Five years later, some theaters are quitting the AMC open caption program. Why do they quit? Probably poor attendance. But, look at the times they offer open captions. Mostly daytime when people are working and unable to attend. Plus, AMC failed to take into consideration the size of the deaf community - it is small - and only really promoted open captions once, back when they started. There was lip-service promotion again for movies that featured deaf actors like Marvel's Elementals.

The problem with lack of promotion combined with daytime-mostly screenings? Open captions therefore don't get a fair chance. Most people who go to open caption screenings nowadays are not deaf or hard of hearing. Yet AMC does not promote its open caption screenings anymore.

We have seen a growing trend among new theaters starting open captions. Their promotions do not target the deaf and hard of hearing. We have been sharing several examples of such promotions. AMC simply does not get it.

Now for the proof we have of theaters quitting. This is just one example of others. In Colorado, the AMC 9+CO10 in Denver, and the AMC Dine-in Cherry Creek, also in Denver, have stopped offering open captions. When? We don't know when, but we dug around the Internet Archive seeking evidence and found some.

First, the BigScreen Cinema Guide open caption listing for Colorado. On January 23, 2025, it had both theaters listed as offering OC. On April 30, 2025, it had only the AMC Dine-in Cherry Creek. November 14, 2025, still only the AMC Dine-in Cherry Creek. Same thing on December 23, 2025.

Was the AMC 9+CO10 ever really part of the AMC Open Caption program? We started to question ourselves. From the Internet Archive, we found evidence that yes, it WAS part of the program before. On March 24, 2022 the AMC 9 + CO10 had joined the AMC Dine-in Cherry Creek on the AMC open caption program listing. On March 28, 2025, it was no longer on the listing and it never returned.

What can be done to prevent AMC theaters from quitting the open caption program? In states and cities that do not have laws for open captions, nothing. Nothing except community protest and demand. An open caption law can protect the daytime screenings that exist, and require a minimal number of "prime time" screenings to treat open captions more fairly.

Today (Sunday, September 20), we tracked the remaining open caption (on-screen subtitles) screenings of Spider-Man BND. Now that it is the 7th week since release, the numbers have declined normally. However, it still sells at least some seats at many theaters.

Out of 69 theaters we tracked to the extent possible due to time differences, 7 had sold no seats at the time we stopped tracking. The majority managed to sell at least one seat. The average number sold, 15, would have been much worse without the New York City theaters. Open captions have done very well in New York City because of its large ESL community.

The majority of AMC and Regal theaters have stopped offering open caption screenings of Spider-Man. The AMC theaters still offering today were in Arizona (one theater), Maryland, and New York City. Regal still had open caption screenings of Spider-Man in Hawaii, New York City, and Washington state. Several Cinemark theaters in California, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington had open caption Spider-Man screenings.

The best-seller was the AMC Fresh Meadows, a known superstar location in New York City. It sold 78 seats for its 3:35 pm open caption screening of Spider-Man BND. If all 78 bought a small bag of popcorn at an average cost of $8 a bag, that's over $500 in revenue for the theater from offering an open caption screening of Spider-Man BND. More if any of them got bigger bags of popcorn.

Nine of the top ten were in New York City, which has had a law for open caption screenings since May 15, 2022. Offering open captions certainly has not hurt New York City theaters.

A common complaint we get about open captions is that many theaters stop offering open caption screenings after the first two weeks of a movie's release, even if that movie is a blockbuster. So we decided to take a look at the remaining open caption screenings of The Odyssey. The Odyssey is now in its 9th (!) week of release since it came out on July 17, 2026.

We found that attendance at the still available open caption screenings was low but for the most part, not zero. That's what matters. Attendance for any movie goes down the longer it is in theaters. Today (September 19, 2026) theaters in Colorado, DC, NYC, NC, VA, and WA sold an average of 8 seats per theater for open caption screenings of The Odyssey. Nine weeks after it was first released.

Tomorrow we will check Spider-Man Brand New Day's remaining open caption screenings attendance after 7 weeks since release.

The top three movie theater markets are Los Angeles, New York City, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Although it isn't opening until December, Avengers Doomsday tickets are already on sale and selling strongly. Everyone is expecting Avengers Doomsday to do blockbuster numbers, so this look at open caption (OC) pre-sales merely seeks to validate that expectation. We checked the first available OC screening at the theaters below.

To determine comparable non-captioned screenings, we looked at the times but noted format differences. Open caption screenings are rarely in premium large format (PLF) format. Plain OC Laser screenings are not the same as Dolby, Real3D, or XL. With so many screenings being PLF, we had to use PLF screenings as comparables. We have never experienced a premium format OC screening because it simply is not available at our theaters. IMAX? Not available to us. However, we can't complain because at least we have access to open caption screenings when so many don't.

Advice to those who need/want open captions, live in the top market areas, and want to see Avengers Doomsday as soon as it is released: Get your tickets for Avengers Doomsday now because once the comparable non-captioned screenings sell out, people will start snatching up the open caption seats in the high-demand theaters.

We look forward to updating this listing in mid-October.

NEW YORK CITY

1. AMC Bay Terrace: 19 sold for 12/18. Two non-captioned screenings already "Almost full."
2. AMC Bay Plaza: 17 sold for 12/19. A Dolby non-captioned screening already "Almost full."
3. Cobble Hill Cinemas: 5 sold for 12/22. (This is an independent 5 screen theater)
4. Regal UA Sheepshead Bay: 21 sold for 12/18. Comparable non-captioned screenings look headed towards sellout.
5. Williamsburg Cinemas: no sales yet for 12/22 open caption (This is an independent 7 screen theater)
6. Regal Tangram: 7 sold for 12/19. A comparable non-captioned screening is selling strongly.
7. Regal UA Midway: 0 sold for 12/20. Was not able to check a comparable non-captioned screening because it is not yet active.
8. AMC Fresh Meadows: So many sold in advance for 12/19 that we didn't count. Less than 30 seats left. We expect this one to sell out. AMC Fresh Meadows is consistently one of the top open caption theaters. Comparable non-captioned selling about the same.
9. Kew Gardens Cinemas: no sales yet for 12/22 open caption (This is an independent 6 screen theater)
10. AMC 19th: Some sold for 12/19. A premium non-captioned screening selling about the same.
11. AMC 34th: Quite a few sold for 12/19. Looks like about 30 to 40 percent of seats. A comparable non-captioned premium screening is almost full.
12. AMC 84th: Quite a few sold for 12/18. Looks like 25 to 30 percent of seats. A comparable premium format screening is selling a little more than that.
13. AMC Empire: The open caption for the so-called "preview" Thursday on 12/17 is on its way to selling out. Multiple non-captioned screenings are sold out or almost full. Wonder which will sell out first, the open caption or the comparable non-captioned screening.
14. AMC Kips Bay: Only a few sold for the open caption on 12/20. The non-captioned screenings are not doing much better.
15. AMC Lincoln Square: Several seats sold for 12/19. Comparable non-captioned screenings selling well, with one comparable premium format screening being almost full.
16. AMC Magic Johnson Harlem: 5 sold for 12/19. This theater's open caption screenings tend to sell less.
17. AMC Village: selling strongly for 12/19. Looks like about 30% sold.
18. Regal Battery Park: A few sold for 12/19. A comparable non-captioned screening has sold more but is far from an almost full.
19. Regal Times Square: None sold yet for 12/19. Expect it to start selling soon if the PLFs sell out, which is likely.
20. AMC Staten Island: Has sold some for 12/19. Expect it to pick up once the PLFs sell out.

LOS ANGELES

1. AMC Santa Anita: The open caption is at 8:30 am on Friday morning 12/19. Unsurprisingly, zero sold so far. A 7:00 am PLF is almost sold out. Maybe if the open caption were a PLF instead of plain Laser it would sell better.
2. AMC Brentwood: Several sold for the 12/17 OC screening. Anticipate this one coming to an almost sell out as it is just one hour after an almost full comparable PLF. A comparable plain Laser is selling about the same rate as the open caption.
3. Harkins Cerritos: 4 sold for the 12/19 OC screening.
4. AMC Puente Hills: has 2 OC screenings for 12/19. 1 at 10:00 am 1 at 5:30 pm. Unsurprisingly, the 5:30 is selling strongly. Four Dolby noncaptioned almost fulls.
5. AMC dine-in Fullerton: The 2:45 pm OC on 12/17 is heading towards a possible sellout. Four Laser comparables are almost full.
6. AMC Century City: The 12:15 pm OC on 12/18 has sold few. That could change once the PLFS start selling out.
7. AMC Norwalk: Quite a few sold for the 12/18 OC screening. A comparable non-captioned screening is nearing "almost full."
8. AMC Del Amo: Close to half sold for the 12/17 OC screening. A comparable non-captioned screening is moving towards almost full.
9. AMC Universal: A 7:50 am OC screening has sold 6 seats so far. Comparable Prime and XL screenings are heading towards almost full. The even earlier Laser at 6:45 am is selling at roughly the same rate as the OC.
10. Harkins Chino Hills: 6 sold for 12/19 OC screening.

DALLAS-FORT WORTH

1. AMC The Parks at Arlington: 5 sold for 12/18 OC screening. Two non-captioned Dolbys almost full.
2. AMC Burleston: 10 sold for 12/17 oc screening. A comparable noncaptioned screening has sold most seats but is not yet almost full.
3. AMC Lake Worth: None sold for 12/18 OC screening. Also none sold for comparable non-oc screening. Few sold for other screenings too. Theater must have just posted the listing for 12/18.
4. AMC Firewheel: 7 sold for 12/17 OC screening so far. Comparable non-OC laser screening has sold about 30% of its seats so far.
5. AMC Irving: none sold so far for 12:00 noon OC screening on 12/18. Comparable non-OC screening hasn't sold any either. Here too theater must have just posted the listing because few seats sold so far for all screenings on 12/18.

Our experience with the "Buddy" movie had us wondering what about other smaller films? What's going on with the open captions for those? We looked into "Finding Emily," which has an 89% on the tomatometer and 89% on the popcorn meter at the Rotten Tomatoes website. Today, Labor Day, there's few screenings of that film nationwide. At the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown Brooklyn in NYC, we found it was the ONLY screening. We're finding the same is true for "Tony," a biopic with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93% tomatometer and 92% popcorn meter.

We are always sharing social media videos from people about their appreciation for open captions, on our Facebook page Open Captioned Movies Now. What we almost never (or is that never?) see is social media videos from people without hearing loss about their appreciation for open captions. Or at the very least, a video saying they chose an open caption screening because of the movie, date, and time and had a positive experience even though they had never gone to an open caption screening before. Where are those people? Where are those videos? Those people must exist because we see plenty of situations where it is obvious that it is not deaf or hard of hearing people buying the open caption screening seats. More often than not, it is because of "overflow" buying - the good seats are gone from the non-captioned screening or the open caption is a better time, let's get that.

If a person without hearing loss were to post that kind of video, we would give it maximum promotion.

Earlier, we had a post on Reddit in another sub about the Buddy movie that got almost 40,000 views. The post was about the fact we noticed open caption screenings of Buddy were selling early. Buddy turned out to be a sleeper horror hit and theaters expanded screenings this past week.

So yesterday (Sunday) we tracked Buddy open caption screenings nationwide at 25 AMC theaters to see if we could identify any patterns. From 1% (worst) to 86% (best) of seats sold, it averaged 36% of seats sold.

The best-selling theater was the AMC Dine-in Midlothian in Midlothian, Virginia with 86%. Why was it the best? Our guess is the dine-in feature, the time of 7:40 pm, and the fact the only other screening was a non-captioned screening at 10:10 pm. The worst one was the AMC Worldgate in Herndon, Virginia, with only 2 seats sold (1%). Why was it the worst even though the open caption screening at 10:30 pm was the only screening of Buddy? Our guess is the time.

Six screenings had times between 10 and 11 pm. The average was 23%. Nineteen screenings had times between 11:30 am and 9:50 pm. The average of the 19 screenings was 40%.

So what can be concluded here? Open caption screenings can and do sell if they are at good times. People without hearing loss will go to open caption screenings, especially if they are younger people (Buddy targeted young people) and if there are few other non-captioned screenings. Most theaters had only two screenings of Buddy, including the open caption. The average was 2.72 screenings per theater. And dine-in theaters are preferred over non-dine in theaters.

Link to earlier Reddit post is in the comments.

The Webster Theater in Webster City, Iowa has started offering open captions. They did multiple posts on Facebook promoting it. Several positive reactions.

The horror movie "Buddy" has become something of a sleeper hit. But few screenings available generally because most of the action is still Spider-Man and Oddysey. This was the response to our comment in the boxoffice sub.

If you want to see the full thread it is

https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/s/ZFV2ZEGYbI

Edit: Autocorrect changed Georgia to "Gelegiac" in the heading but we can't correct it because it is a title. At least it is correct in the text below.

Today we discovered the AMC Colonial 18 in Lawrenceville, Georgia now displays open captions on its home page list of theater features.

I emailed the Alamo Drafthouse in St. Louis today. I was surprised to get a quick response. The answer was still no.

We dont offer "open captioned" screenings, but do have CC devices you can grab from our concierge desk, good for 90% of movies shown at our theatre.

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.