Box offices booming -- time to make movies accessible
Everywhere we turn these days, we see signs that times are getting tough. Jobs and homes are being lost, businesses are failing.
You'd think that would be driving people to drink, but alcohol sales are way down too.
So what are people doing to try to keep their spirits up? Well, according to an article in today's New York Times, they are going to the movies in record numbers.
Not only is total revenue up -- partly a function of higher box-office prices -- but total attendance has taken a sharp jump. If the current trend holds, this year will see the biggest attendance spike in over 20 years.
What accounts for that? According to one academic whose specialty is the entertainment industry, "It's not rocket science. People want to forget their troubles, and they want to be with other people."
This trend could well prove to be an enormous blessing for those of us with hearing loss who have been advocating for greater access through captioning and better sound systems. The exhibitors have been arguing for years that accommodating our needs imposes an "undue" economic burden on them. But with labor and construction costs down, and movie-exhibitor profits up, this looks to be the perfect time for them to act.
We should find out soon whether the exhibitors' resistance to captioning has softened. The Washington State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP) filed suit earlier this month against the multi-plex theater owners in King County (greater Seattle), asking for meaningful increases in the number and variety of captioned movies.
The defendant exhibitors are trying to arrange a meeting with us in early April to see if we can reach an early resolution. The robust box-office returns should give us another means for arguing that there is not time like the present for them to act.
