Captions in the Movie Theaters

Submitted by admin [1] on Sun, 02/01/1998 - 04:00

The Movie Access Coalition (MAC) represents eleven organizations serving deaf and hard of hearing people. The National Association of the Deaf was a founding member of MAC and remains its most active participant. MAC advocates for having open captioned movies distributed through regular channels. The goal is to have these movies shown in neighborhood theaters, on a regular basis and at regular times. MAC believes that once movie studios see how many people attend captioned films, they will have an economic incentive to provide these films to theaters.

Currently, most open captioned films are distributed and booked through a company called Tripod Captioned Films. Tripod receives donations of captioned films from movie studios and arranges with local non-profit organizations to rent theater space. Most of the films are received by the studios several weeks, often months, after they are released to the general public. Also, many showings are at "off hours," such as on Saturday mornings. MAC would like to make attending movies more attractive by having open captioned movies shown in theaters at mainstream times, as soon as the movies are released.

In January of 1997, we met with motion picture studios in California to discuss open captioned screenings of first-run movies in area theaters. Studio executives seemed willing to try this, as long as the theaters agreed. On July 20 and 23, 1997, A Simple Wish, produced by Universal Pictures, was shown at Cineplex Odeon Theaters in four cities -- New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. This was the first time an open captioned first-run movie was booked from a major studio directly to theaters via regular distribution channels, without any intermediaries or nonprofit organizations involved in the process.

Attendance was mixed. Some screenings in Washington, DC were sold out; others were not as well attended. In part, this may be because of limited publicity about the movie, both to the hearing and deaf public. The success in Washington, DC was largely due to MAC's support and involvement, since many MAC members live in the Washington area. In the future, we hope that marketing will be handled while distributing the movies. Universal is waiting to evaluate the results of other screening tests to make its decisions on the economic viability of open captioned films.

A look to the future

In fall 1997, an Illinois-based theatrical booking company, which already works with motion picture companies, established a business to handle the booking and marketing for open captioned versions of recently released motion pictures. The company's goal is to be operational in early 1998. They will start arranging for movies in one to twelve cities, expanding further if successful. As the business plan develops, involvement from the deaf community regarding these open captioned screenings will be important.

Rear Window Captioning, a new way to view

Efforts are still underway for MAC to obtain open captioned movies for area theaters, and by the WGBH Educational Foundation to offer closed captioning in theaters. One theater in California, the General Cinema Theater in Sherman Oaks, has installed new closed captioning technology. This technology, called the Rear Window Captioning System (shown at right, thanks to WGBH TV), reverses captions on a text display mounted at the back of the theater. Deaf and hard of hearing people read the captions on transparent acrylic panels, which are attached to their seats and can be adjusted to look like they appear on the screen. To date, movie goers in California have been able to see The Jackal and Titanic using the rear window technology. Members of MAC will be trying out and reviewing this new technology at the National Air and Space Museum in late January, 1998.