Deafening Volume Levels at Cinemas Nowadays - Permanent Hearing Damage?

olgadapolga

I expect that the cinema management has been asked by the attendees to turn the volume up to drown out the disgusting noises made by the perpetual popcorn-munchers and pepsi-slurpers. Shame that they can't get rid of the smell of the popcorn/hot dogs/nachos as well.

SevenOfNine

We went 3 times as soon as Cineworld reopened, can't say the films were noticeably louder than the 'normal' level of fairly loud. 

Haven't been to Odeon yet to compare.

mksysb

For me, the whole point of going to the cinema is the loud surround sound.  You can see the picture on your tv at home, but can't recreate the booming sound.

ripplyuk

It has to be loud to cover the noise of everyone munching popcorn and rustling crisp packets. If you have 100 or more people all eating, it can be very loud and distracting. There’s no chance of them cutting back on the popcorn. The vast majority of the theatre’s profit is made from those snacks, not the movie itself. 

I bring ear plugs or ear defenders. 

Manxman_in_exile

olgadapolga said:

I expect that the cinema management has been asked by the attendees to turn the volume up to drown out the disgusting noises made by the perpetual popcorn-munchers and pepsi-slurpers. Shame that they can't get rid of the smell of the popcorn/hot dogs/nachos as well.

ripplyuk said:

It has to be loud to cover the noise of everyone munching popcorn and rustling crisp packets. If you have 100 or more people all eating, it can be very loud and distracting. There’s no chance of them cutting back on the popcorn. The vast majority of the theatre’s profit is made from those snacks, not the movie itself. 

I bring ear plugs or ear defenders. 

We stopped going to the cinema years ago because of this.  You pay a small fortune and then find you need subtitles because you can't hear over the crisps and popcorn being eaten, sweet wrappers being rustled, and drinks being slurped.  It's just a waste of money and not at all enjoyable.

And then the drunks...  We went to watch Control about Joy Division some years and they had to stop the film to eject two drunken couples who insisted on conducting very loud conversations during the music tracks.

Funnily enough we do still go to our local cinema for screenings of RSC and National Theatre productions.  It's obviously an audience demographic issue as those audiences all want to listen to the dialogue and keep quiet!!!

bris

It's one of those "you know your getting old because the cinemas to loud" scenarios. I can't ever remember it being any different tbh,

DCFC79

I cant say Ive noticed a difference in volume, I have noticed the cinema is less than half full.

ElefantEd

My family had a lovely private showing of Black Widow a couple of weeks ago - possibly because we went on the night of the European football cup final.The volume was fine and we had a free choice of seats!

Le_Kirk

Go and see a film called "A Quiet Place" no music, very little dialogue and what there was, was conducted in whispers.  It was a brilliant film though.

Norman_Castle

ElefantEd said:

My family had a lovely private showing of Black Widow a couple of weeks ago - possibly because we went on the night of the European football cup final.The volume was fine and we had a free choice of seats!

A few years ago a friend gave me a single complimentary ticket. I went in the daytime and watched the latest Star Wars film completely on my own.