For the time being, subtitled films
can come in three formats:

1) Foreign language films, with English subtitles.

These can be screened in any cinema, and have English subtitles at all times, wherever they are screened. Subtitles are etched onto the actual film print, and depending on popularity, sometimes hundreds of prints are produced.

Examples: The Passion of the Christ, Hero, Amelie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon etc.

2) 'Hard captioned' films.

Becoming quite rare nowadays, these can also be screened in any cinema. Subtitles are etched onto the actual film print, but only 5 to 10 prints are produced. Cinema chains share the prints, and 'tour' them around their cinema sites. A subtitled show usually only plays for one day, at one time, in each cinema, before being passed onto the next cinema down the line. This is the reason why a film can sometimes take months to appear 'at a cinema near you'.

Examples: The recent Harry Potter and James Bond films, Batman Begins.

3) 'Digitally subtitled' films.

Almost every major film is released in this format, including the films mentioned above, but only cinemas with digital subtitle equipment can screen them.

Currently, the subtitle 'files' are supplied to a cinema on CD Rom disc, and are projected separately onto the cinema screen. Around 8 of the top 10 films at any one time are available with digital subtitle 'files' and most cinemas with this facility screen the latest releases with subtitles a few times a week.

Cinemas with this equipment can also provide an audio description service to visually impaired people - a narrator explains what's happening on screen, through personal headphones. It's similar to listening to a cricket match on the radio, but far more exciting!

There are currently over 160 cinemas in the UK and Ireland with subtitle and audio description facilities (locations HERE). Over 350 films are available with subtitles and / or audio description.

NEWS! The cinema industry is gradually going 'digital' - new projectors are being installed in hundreds of cinemas around the UK and Ireland which screen films digitally. These digital systems have built-in subtitle 'readers'. If a film is supplied with digital subtitle 'files', it can be screened subtitled in a digitally-equipped cinema. Around 8 of the top 10 films at any one time are available with digital subtitle 'files'.

Cinemas with digital projectors will be added to our locations database as they become available. The cinemas listed here will be the first UK cinemas to install digital projectors.