Final Regulatory Assessment and Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Final Rule - Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Public Accommodations - Movie Theaters; Movie Captioning and Audio Description

As a result of the final rule’s requirements, movie theaters may need to develop additional staff training programs and reinforce this training on a regular basis to ensure that staff members know how to turn on the captions, to operate the devices, and are able to assist patrons in the equipment’s use.  According to a movie theater’s public comment on the 2014 NPRM, training employees to distribute and operate captioning and audio description equipment will take approximately 15 minutes.²⁶  To quantify this cost, time spent on training is monetized using the average hourly wage of movie theater employees. 

The analysis assumes that staff training occurs twice a year for all employees at all movie theaters exhibiting digital movies.  Unlike the other costs in the analysis, the training costs also include the costs to movie theaters with auditoriums that were already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description prior to the rulemaking, as all movie theaters with auditoriums exhibiting digital movies will be required to comply with the rule’s operational requirements.  The Department notes that although the operational requirements only require a movie theater to have one employee on location to assist patrons with the captioning and audio description equipment whenever a digital movie with captioning and audio description is shown, the Department has estimated the associated training costs assuming that movie theaters will train all employees.  Without reliable data on the actual number of employees who will be trained as a result of this rulemaking, the Department believes that this is the best approach.

Table 3-26 shows the calculation of the number of employees per movie theater auditorium in the industry.  According to May 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates, there were approximately 131,040 persons employed by the movie industry.  Applying this figure to the total number of auditoriums in the United States (including drive-in movie theaters to account for drive-in movie theater employees included in the 2014 BLS estimate) suggests that there are approximately 3.3 employees per auditorium.

Table 3-26 : Employees Per Movie Auditorium Calculation

*Source: BLS, Occupational Employment Statistics, National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, NAICS 512130 – Motion Picture and Video Exhibition (May 2014), available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics5_512130.htm (last visited Sept. 12, 2016).

** Source: Data from UDITOA and Deluxe Technicolor provided by NATO (Section 3.1)

The additional time spent on training as a result of this rulemaking is monetized using the average hourly wage rate of movie theater employees and a wage-to-employment cost factor.  This calculation is summarized in Table 3-27 and shows the hourly cost of a movie theater employee assumed for cost estimation purposes.  This hourly cost is used to monetize the time spent on training staff members.

Table 3-27 : Hourly Employment Cost Calculation

*Source: BLS, Occupational Employment Statistics, National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, NAICS 512130 – Motion Picture and Video Exhibition (May 2014), available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics5_512130.htm (last visited Sept. 12, 2016).
**Source: Press Release, BLS, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation – September 2015 (Dec. 9, 2015), available at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm (last visited Sept. 12, 2016).

As discussed above, the primary analysis assumes that staff training will take 15 minutes and will be conducted twice a year.  Thus, each employee will spend approximately 0.5 hours a year on training related to the operational requirements of this rule.  The total training costs to the industry as a result of this rulemaking can be calculated by multiplying the number of auditoriums exhibiting digital movies, the average number of movie theater employees per auditorium, the hourly employment cost of movie theater employees, and the hours spent per year on training.  The estimated staff training costs in the primary analysis are presented in Section 4.1.3.  An additional sensitivity analysis with increased staff training frequency is presented in Section 4.2.6.