The nation’s second-largest movie theater chain will provide better seating options for people with disabilities under an agreement reached Thursday with the Justice Department.

AMC Entertainment Inc. will move seating for those who use wheelchairs and their companions from the front to the middle of theaters in nearly 250 existing properties with stadium seats. What’s more, the company says it will place accessible seating within the stadium section near the center of any newly built theaters.

The agreement brings an end to a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in 1999 that alleged that AMC — which operates 5,300 screens across the country — violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Federal officials said that based on private complaints and their own investigation the seating offered to people with disabilities in AMC’s theaters with stadium seats failed to provide a similar line of sight to that of other moviegoers.

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