Washington SB 5486: Concerning open motion picture captioning in motion picture theaters.

Bill Text

CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT
ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5486
Chapter 355, Laws of 2025
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
MOTION PICTURE THEATERS—CLOSED CAPTIONING
EFFECTIVE DATE: January 1, 2026
Passed by the Senate April 22, 2025
Yeas 34 Nays 14
DENNY HECK
President of the Senate
Passed by the House April 10, 2025
Yeas 84 Nays 11
LAURIE JINKINS
Speaker of the House of
Representatives
CERTIFICATE
I, Sarah Bannister, Secretary of
the Senate of the State of
Washington, do hereby certify that
the attached is ENGROSSED
SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5486 as
passed by the Senate and the House
of Representatives on the dates
hereon set forth.
SARAH BANNISTER
Secretary
Approved May 19, 2025 2:44 PM FILED
May 20, 2025
BOB FERGUSON
Governor of the State of Washington
Secretary of State
State of Washington

AN ACT Relating to motion picture captioning in motion picture 1
theaters; adding a new section to chapter 49.60 RCW; creating a new 2
section; and providing an effective date.3
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:4
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 49.60 5
RCW to read as follows:6
(1) A place of public accommodation that is a motion picture 7
theater shall provide access to fully operational and well–maintained 8
closed captioning technology for the general public for each 9
screening of a motion picture that is produced and available with 10
closed captioning as required by Title III of the federal Americans 11
with disabilities act.12
(2) If a motion picture is produced with open captioning content 13
and distributed to motion picture theaters, a motion picture theater 14
company that controls, operates, owns, or leases five or more motion 15
picture theaters in the state shall provide open captioning 16
screenings of such motion picture that has at least five scheduled 17
screenings at that theater, provided that the theater has digital 18
projection systems that support open captioning files. Such open 19
captioning screenings must occur within each of the time periods set 20
forth below:21
ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5486
AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE
Passed Legislature - 2025 Regular Session
State of Washington 69th Legislature 2025 Regular Session
By Senate Law & Justice (originally sponsored by Senators Orwall,
Dhingra, Nobles, and Trudeau)
READ FIRST TIME 02/07/25.
p. 1 ESSB 5486.SL

(a) Within each of the first two weeks of such a motion picture's 1
release, the motion picture theater shall provide at least two open 2
captioning screenings, of which at least one must begin between 5:59 3
p.m. and 11:01 p.m. on Fridays or between 10:59 a.m. and 11:01 p.m. 4
on Saturdays or Sundays.5
(b) Within each week after the first two weeks of such a motion 6
picture's release, the motion picture theater shall provide at least 7
one open captioning screening per week, which must begin between 5:59 8
p.m. and 10:01 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays; 9
between 5:59 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. on Fridays; or between 10:59 a.m. 10
and 11:01 p.m. on Saturdays or Sundays.11
(3) If a motion picture is produced with open captioning content 12
and distributed to motion picture theaters, a motion picture theater 13
company that controls, operates, owns, or leases four or fewer motion 14
picture theaters in the state shall, at each theater that has digital 15
projection systems that support open captioning files:16
(a) Provide an open captioning screening within eight calendar 17
days after receiving a request; or18
(b) Offer open captioning consistent with the requirements for 19
motion picture theaters in subsection (2) of this section.20
(4) Nothing in this section shall prevent a motion picture 21
theater from offering more open captioning screenings than required 22
by subsections (2) and (3) of this section.23
(5) Motion picture theaters shall provide contact information on 24
their websites for the purpose of receiving and fulfilling requests 25
for open captioning screenings.26
(6) If an open captioning screening of a motion picture overlaps 27
with one or more other open captioning screenings of the same motion 28
picture at the same motion picture theater, no more than one such 29
motion picture screening may be counted toward the minimum number of 30
screenings required by this section, except where it is not 31
practicable to avoid such overlap.32
(7) A motion picture theater shall advertise the date and time of 33
open captioning screenings in the same manner as the motion picture 34
theater advertises all other motion picture screenings and indicate 35
which screenings will include open captioning by using the character 36
symbol "OC."37
(8) A motion picture theater shall maintain documents sufficient 38
to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of this section for a 39
period of at least one year.40
p. 2 ESSB 5486.SL

(9) This section does not apply to drive-in theaters.1
(10) For purposes of this section:2
(a) "Closed captioning" means the written dis