Opinion ID: 3054041
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Stadium Seating

Text: In the mid-1990s, stadium seating in movie theaters revolutionized the way Americans viewed movies. Rather than cramming seats together on a sloped floor, causing moviegoers to be at the mercy of a taller patron choosing the seat in front of them, the staggered elevation of stadium seating “virtually suspend[ed] the moviegoer in front of the wall-towall screen.” Along with the other major theater companies, AMC constructed scores of theaters nationwide employing the new layout. Promoting its theaters, AMC invited the public to “Experience the Difference.” The Department of Justice claimed that one group could not: the disabled. The first iteration of stadium-seating theaters, initially constructed by AMC in 1995, posed a particular problem for wheelchair-bound patrons. These complexes offered a hybrid of traditional sloped floor seating closest to the screen and staUNITED STATES v. AMC ENTERTAINMENT, INC. 15941 dium seating accessible by stairs. Moviegoers would enter the theater in the front, right under the screen. Once entering, patrons would first have the option (rarely, if ever, taken) of sitting in the few rows of traditional sloped-floor seating closest to the screen. Or if they preferred (and were able), they could bypass these first rows and climb stairs to choose a seat within the stadium-seating section of the theater. The impossibility of the latter option relegated disabled patrons to the least desirable seats in the rows closest to the screen. Complaints from wheelchair-bound customers began immediately. The mother of a disabled viewer complained to AMC that their seats in the second row “made it impossible to see this movie at such a close range.” A disabled Missourian explained in more detail his experience while sitting in the limited wheelchair seating offered by AMC: [My] eagerness quickly turned to anger and then despair as I found myself in a brand new theater where, from a viewing and comfort standpoint, I was worse off than ever before. While your theater seats appear very comfortable and positioned to maximize the theater goer’s [sic] view of the screen, my wheelchair has a rigid frame and straight back. From my vantage point on the far right side of the second row from the screen I was forced to endure two hours of neck wrenching discomfort as I struggled to find a comfortable way to view the entire screen. . . . If not the least desirable location in the theater, the wheelchair area must be a close second. AMC apparently responded to customer complaints and began to modify its design for future theaters. Later iterations of the multiplex permitted entry in the mid-section of the auditorium, allowing for wheelchair seating in the center of the cinema. By 2001, AMC offered full stadium seating for all patrons in its newly constructed theaters. Nevertheless, the initial spurt of theater construction specked communities with 15942 UNITED STATES v. AMC ENTERTAINMENT, INC. theaters restricting wheelchair seating to the very front of the auditorium.