AMC Theaters Sued Over Wheelchair Access

The Justice Department accused the AMC movie theater chain Friday of failing to provide wheelchair users access to stadium-style seating.

A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court charges AMC, one of the largest movie chains in the country, with violating the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“This is a matter of basic fairness,” said Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant attorney general for civil rights. “People who use wheelchairs go to the movies and pay the same prices as everyone else. They should have access to seats of comparable quality to those available to most other persons.”

Officials at AMC headquarters in Kansas City, Mo., could not be reached for comment late Friday.

Stadium-style seats are constructed on risers to offer unobstructed views. Except at AMC’s largest theaters, patrons cannot get to those seats without climbing stairs, the lawsuit said.

Wheelchair patrons are instead forced to sit in the very front of most AMC theaters, looking up at the screen, according to the suit.

The Justice Department said the seating for the handicapped does not provide the same unobstructed and comfortable vantage available to customers sitting higher up.

The lawsuit seeks a court order forcing AMC to construct new theaters and remodel existing ones in a way that will provide stadium seating to people in wheelchairs.

It also asks that AMC be required to pay damages to patrons with disabilities who have been denied access to stadium-style seats.

The Justice Department action is an outgrowth of an investigation that originated in Los Angeles after complaints by handicapped moviegoers. The department said it negotiated with AMC for seven months to resolve the dispute without resorting to litigation.

“The negotiations were dragging on while more movie theaters were being built,” said a Justice Department source. “We decided we couldn’t wait any longer, so we filed the lawsuit.”

Although the complaint covers all AMC theaters in the country, it specifically names two in the Los Angeles area. One is on East Civic Center Drive in Norwalk and the other is on Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills.

The company operates theaters with stadium seating throughout California and in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia.

AMC pioneered the use of stadium seating in the United States, establishing a trend that has taken over the movie theater industry.

“AMC says it is changing the way the world sees movies,” said Lee. “We’re just making sure that change complies with the law.”