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

The total costs estimated in Section 4.1.1, 4.1.2, and 4.1.3 represent the costs to all movie theater auditoriums exhibiting digital movies.  This section presents the estimated total costs that the average movie theater within each venue type will incur over the 15-year period of analysis.  The cost estimation in this section assumes that the average movie theater will purchase captioning and audio description equipment in 2016 and will maintain operations throughout the period of analysis.  For the purposes of this section, the average movie theater is not a theater already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description before the rule goes into effect.

Table 4-8 presents the undiscounted upfront costs incurred by the average movie theater within each venue type.  The average upfront costs to a Megaplex movie theater that is not already equipped to provide closed movie captioning or audio description are approximately $27,358.  The largest expense associated with this rulemaking for a Megaplex movie theater is purchasing the captioning hardware for each auditorium.  The upfront costs for the average Single-Auditorium movie theater are $3,562, with the largest expense being the acquisition of captioning devices.  The upfront costs for the average Multiplex and Miniplex movie theaters are $18,309 and $9,834, respectively.