The Surprising Reason You May See Captions Used at Maine Theaters

For years, we have had the ability to put captions on our TVs.

While they were originally intended for the hearing impaired, lots of people use them for different reasons.  As a father, I use them so I can still watch TV while the kids are making noise in the background.  I have also heard of people using them because the audio on some streamed content is compressed to a point where the quality stinks.  Because of this, the sound is not as clear as some people want.

Typically, however, the only time you saw captions during a movie in a theater was when it was a foreign film that featured English subtitles.

That may be about to change.

For the last few years, some theater chains have offered "open captions" by request.  The AMC theater chain, for example, will set up open captions showings of a movie if at least ten people want the captions on.

What's the difference between open captions and closed captions?  Open captions are always on.  Closed captions can be turned on or turned off, as wanted.

We could soon see more theaters showing movies with the captions turned on, but not for the reason you think.  Apparently, it is not advocates for the hearing impaired who are pushing for the captions to be turned on.  The largest group pushing for captions is the young adults.

Because they have grown up on streaming video, both Millennials and Gen-Zers have become accustomed to having captions turned on.

So far, no theaters have announced that they plan to run movies with the captions turned on, but it probably is not far off.

What do you think of the idea?  Will it be a benefit or will the text get in the way of your enjoyment of the movie?  Give us your thoughts by sending us a message inside our app.