On January 16, 2025 a bill for open captions was introduced in the New York State senate: NY S02269. Introduced by New York State senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and co-sponsored by New York State senator Lea Webb. Title is “An act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring certain motion picture theaters to provide scheduled showings of motion pictures with open motion picture captioning.” A companion bill will be introduced soon in the other legislative chamber. We will send another update then!
Go, New York State!
What does this bill do?
The bill applies to movie theaters that have more than 10 screenings a week.
If a movie has four or more screenings per week, at least 25% of those four or more screenings must have open captions. Theaters are not required to have more than four screenings of a movie in a week; theaters may voluntarily offer more than four.
Peak times means: between 5:59 pm and 11:01 pm on Friday or between 11:29 am and 11:01 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
Peak times requirements: Fifty percent must be during the Peak days/times. This most likely applies early in a movie's run, generally the first two weeks. The fifty percent requirement does not apply if there are say, eight screenings of the movie but none of them are peak time (this is usually the case later in a movie's run). But if any of them are peak time, all the peak time screenings must have open captions.
Non-peak time requirements: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are not peak attendance days. On those days, fifty percent of open caption screenings must be between 6:00 pm and 11:00 pm. The fifty percent requirement does not apply if there are say, eight screenings of the movie but none of them are peak time (this is usually the case later in a movie's run). But if any of them are peak time, all the peak time screenings must have open captions.
Also, theaters can not "double-book," meaning schedule open caption screenings such that they are overlapping with each other. For example, there can't be a 5:00 pm OC screening of one movie and a 5:15 pm OC screening of another movie. If they overlap, they won't count towards the minimum requirement. The exception is if it is simply not possible to avoid overlapping.
Of course, theaters are free to offer more than the minimum required.
Violation of the law carries a penalty of up to $500 per violation.
Who in New York benefits?
- Deaf/hard of hearing
- Autism (Neurodivergent)
- Auditory Processing Disorder
- Attention Deficit Disorder
- Aphasia
- Dyslexia
- Kids learning to read
- Adults learning English as a second language
- Noise sensitive
- Many people just like or prefer captions
What can YOU do?
If you live in New York State, call/email your New York State senator and ask him/her to support this bill. If you don’t know who your New York State senator is, use the Find Your Senator page. If you have family or friends in New York State, tell them about this bill and ask them to reach out to their New York State senators to request that they support this bill.
Bill links:
Find My New York Senator:
https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator
New York Senators
https://www.nysenate.gov/senators-committees
Legiscan: New York Senate Bill
https://legiscan.com/NY/bill/S02269/2025
Bill on NY Senate website: