WA movie theaters now required to provide more open captioning

[Harold Hallikainen]

https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/wa-movie-theaters-open-captioning.amp

WA movie theaters now required to provide more open captioning

By Ramsey Pfeffinger
Published January 2, 2026 12:21pm PST
FOX 13 Seattle

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Movie theaters across Washington are now required by law to increase their open captioning options for moviegoers. The law passed in the 2025 legislative session went into effect on Jan. 1.

The new law, passed 34-14 in the senate, says movie theaters doing at least five showings of a movie that is produced with open captioning content must provide captioned screenings to the audience.

Closed captioning refers to text being put overtop a screen afterward, while open captioning means the text is burned into the media itself in advance.

Requirements of the new motion picture law

• There now must be two open-captioned screenings within the first two weeks of the theater playing the movie. This applies if the theater operator has five or more locations.
• One of the screenings has to be between 5:59 p.m. and 10:01 p.m. between Monday and Thursday, until 11:01 p.m. on Friday, or between 10:59 a.m. and 11:01 p.m. on weekend days.
• If a theater company operates four or fewer locations, they must provide the closed captioning screening within eight days of a request. This applies only if the screening is produced with open captioning.
• Open captioned screenings must be shown alongside the regular advertisements a theater does for other screenings with the "OC" designation.
• Motion picture theaters receiving closed captioned available content must provide those to the public in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The John Waldo act does not apply to drive-in theaters.

[Leo Enticknap]

So either advertisers will have to provide OCAP versions of their ads, or their ads cannot be shown with OCAP screenings? If I've got this right, then theaters will either have to violate their contracts with advertisers, or break the law.

[Steve Guttag]

Honestly, it seems like a bit on the lite-side compared to some other open caption requirements. Just two open caption screenings within the first 2-weeks? If you are a small operator you have 8-days, after a request? We have a site that will switch the show to open captions within minutes of start time (I'm sure it is dependent on what audience has already purchased tickets), if such a request comes in (there is a school for the deaf up the street so they do try to accommodate their larger than normal demand for open-captions).

Leo, where are you getting that requirement about ads?

Ads, inherently tend to have a lot of text with them and the law also states that the theatre is only compelled to provide open captions if the material exists. I have yet to see any law where the ads (or previews even) have to be open caption.

[Frank Cox]

Apparently anyone who plays a movie for just one week at a time is exempt....

[James Wyrembelski]

Michigan is looking at this right now.

The bill mandates that theaters with eight or more screens or those showing a movie more than five times weekly must provide at least two Open Movie Captioning screenings each week for three weeks after a film's release.

[Ron Graham]

1. GOOD. Theaters will benefit from adding regular OC screenings. There are a lot of potential customers who aren't coming because they can't hear the dialogue properly and CC devices are cumbersome.

2. We also run OC weekly at one of our drive in locations, and have for 8 years now. Every single Sunday!

So either advertisers will have to provide OCAP versions of their ads, or their ads cannot be shown with OCAP screenings? If I've got this right, then theaters will either have to violate their contracts with advertisers, or break the law.

This isn't about advertisements within the auditorium, it is referring to theaters listing their showtimes with CLEAR designation that the OC showtimes are OC.

[Frank Cox]

GOOD. Theaters will benefit from adding regular OC screenings

If that sort of thing is so beneficial, why is it necessary to pass a law to force it to exist?

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not actually opposed to OC screenings (and this law doesn't affect me since I'm not in the US) but in my case I've never had any demand for it here and in fact I've never had anyone even ask about it or bring it up in any context in the three decades I've been running this theatre. It seems to me that if there was any real desire for this sort of thing, at least one person would have asked about it over the years, and exactly nobody ever has.

Others are probably in the same position: if people were actually asking for this they would get it with no legal coercion required.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Does Canada require closed captions? I summarized the comments filed in the proposed rulemaking that got us to the current closed caption requirement in the US. The summaries are at https://hallikainen.org/org/DojNprm/ . Most people wanted open captions.

[Frank Cox]

Does Canada require closed captions?

Not that I've ever heard about.

[Jesse Skeen]

When do we get a law that just requires theaters to show movies PROPERLY? As someone who CAN hear, I expect every movie to be presented in Dolby Atmos.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Would probably be worth linking the actual legal statute, rather than relying on journalist summaries of it... we are already conflating concepts such as "locations" versus "screens" etc in discussing it perhaps?

Here is WA's tracking interface for SB5864 "John Waldo Act"
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?B...5486&Year=2025

And an independent tracker:

https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1801573

But not being a native I'm unclear which link teases out the statute as passed and signed into law.

If we are going by summaries, this article seems to a little more readable to the general public:

" More Open-Caption Movies Coming Soon The John Waldo Act Becomes Washington State Law"
https://hearingloss-wa.org/more-open...ton-state-law/

What I would really want to know, is what behavior is expected of a single screen or small art-house and non-profits. Ones that still qualify as "showing movies to the public", what are they is expected to do? There might be only one screening booked, and only one slot available. Surely they don't expect them to honor requests by adding a screening? Or switch to entirely OCAP if it is in fact provided? But nothing I've read so far necessarily exempts those venues or gives them a unique rule to follow?

The only real option for a 1 off screening would be like what Steve described, the willingness to switch to OCAP on short notice if there is a ticketed request (if it was provided to the cinema as OCAP available), but you'd still have to advertise the OC available aspect. Or the nuclear option, OCAP screenings for everything, when it is available, which is quite a shift, and may or may not go over well depending on your audience makeup.

I'm in Texas so not relevant, but we get tons of CRUs with OCAP but only use them if it is a specially booked OCAP event coming from the studio or creatives, our team would have to get ahead of it on the marketing side to comply, and would eat up a bunch more server storage too, cause we typically don't even ingest the OCAPs.

[Ed Gordon]

Here is what Google AI has to say:

AI Overview

Surveys show strong support for open captions in movies from both the hearing-impaired and hearing audiences, with many finding them helpful for focus, understanding accents, or dealing with poor audio, and most not bothered by them when done well, challenging the idea they ruin the movie experience. While some prefer designated screenings, a significant portion of viewers, especially younger ones, use subtitles regularly at home and increasingly prefer open captions for better overall comprehension and accessibility, acting as an asset for everyone, not just the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Key Survey Findings & Trends:

• High Acceptance: A large majority (around 91%) of moviegoers surveyed by Audio Accessibility weren't bothered by open captions, and 75% preferred them if well-implemented.
• Widespread Use: A 3Play Media survey found 98% of viewers watch with captions at least occasionally, with 38% always using them for focus, learning, or to overcome audio issues like thick accents or low volume.
• "Curb-Cut Effect": Captions benefit everyone, not just those with hearing loss, improving memory and literacy, similar to how curb cuts help people with and without wheelchairs.
• Generational Shift: Younger audiences (under 44) are more likely to use subtitles, with many watching streamed content with captions on by default.
• Reasons for Use: Common reasons include maintaining focus, deciphering mumbled dialogue, dealing with bad audio mixing, and watching in noisy environments, notes NPR and marketplace.org.
• The Debate: While many appreciate accessibility, some moviegoers still prefer captions to be optional, fearing they detract from the cinematic experience, leading theaters to offer specific open-caption showtimes, say Reddit users and Gothamist.

Conclusion:

Surveys consistently show that open captions are a valuable, non-intrusive feature for a broad audience, not just a niche accessibility tool, with many viewers embracing them for various practical reasons, notes Washingtonian and marketplace.org.

[Abraham Robinson]

When do we get a law that just requires theaters to show movies PROPERLY? As someone who CAN hear, I expect every movie to be presented in Dolby Atmos.

Jesse, I hope you are not mocking people with disabilities.

[Harold Hallikainen]

"moviegoers surveyed by Audio Accessibility weren't bothered by open captions, and 75% preferred them if well-implemented." I wonder how random the sample was.

Many theaters are now running open captions for some showings. How is attendance at these showings compared to others? Have you gotten complaints about the open captions?

When watching TV at home, my wife and I have the captions on. We also watch a lot of foreign movies in theaters with subtitles, so we are used to text on the screen.

[Ed Gordon]

From the Seattle Times newspaper:

By Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times arts critic


The new year brings good news for those who love movies but are deaf or hard of hearing: Enacted Jan. 1, a new state law will increase the number of movie screenings using open captions, and require theaters to clearly identify those screenings in their advertising.

Open captions, as the name implies, are viewable by everyone, differing from closed captions in that they don’t require an individual device (which movie theaters have been required by law to offer for some years, but which are notorious for not always working properly). The captions will simply show up on the movie screen, readable by all audience members — similar to subtitles used on foreign-language films, but also including information like ambient noise and nonverbal sounds.

Elizabeth Ralston, a Seattle-based accessibility consultant who is deaf, called the new law “a huge win for the deaf and HOH communities.” In an email, she wrote, “Even though there are personal closed captioned devices available at theaters, having open captions benefits those who prefer to see the captions directly on the big screen. Offering multiple ways to enjoy a movie makes it accessible to an even larger number of people — there is quite a lot of diversity in communication preferences within the deaf community.”

She acknowledged that many movie theaters were already offering such screenings, but most of them on an irregular basis, and “without predictability it can be hard to plan a movie outing.” Many people, she said, may not know about the option of open captions; the new requirements will go a long way in raising awareness and accessibility.

The new law has been known as the John Waldo Act, named for the attorney and disability rights advocate who died in 2023. Waldo co-founded the Washington State Communication Access Project, which compelled numerous public spaces — transportation, live theaters, moviehouses, courtrooms, sports arenas — to offer captioning for the hard of hearing.

Under the bill, if a movie is available with open captioning (most major-studio releases are, though some older films may not have the option) and has at least five scheduled screenings, companies with five or more theaters in the state must offer two open captioned screenings a week in the first two weeks of release, among other requirements.

Of the major film chains in Washington, AMC and Cinemark already offer selected screenings with open captions, as well as on request, though the new law will require them to offer more. Regal, according to its website, appears to currently offer open captions only on request for groups of 10 or more.

Representatives for all three national chains did not respond to requests for information this week.

Jeff Brein, managing partner of Far Away Entertainment (which owns six moviehouses in the state), said in an email that his theaters have long offered open caption screenings on Tuesdays and upon patron request with 24-hour notice, though requests are infrequent. He said the chain would comply with the new law and begin offering the required twice-weekly open caption screenings of new films.

Individual moviehouses, or chains with four or fewer theaters, have the option of either following the same requirement or providing an open caption screening within eight days of a patron request. SIFF, with its three theaters, already offers open captions on all screens on Tuesdays and Sundays, as does the Grand Cinema in Tacoma on Wednesdays and Sundays. Jesse Plack, manager of the three-screen Majestic Bay in Ballard, said that while his theater doesn’t currently offer regularly scheduled open caption screenings, patrons looking for that format should contact the theater and will be happily accommodated.

Washington is not the first state to require open caption accessibility in movie theaters; Hawaiʻi and Maryland, as well as Washington, D.C., and New York City, have already passed such laws, and other states (including North Carolina and Michigan) have bills in progress.

Source: https://www.seattletimes.com/enterta...s-per-new-law/