Deafening cinema sound is ruining films, claims Hugh Grant

Joker, the sinister hit starring Joaquin Phoenix, is dividing film critics. Hailed as a masterpiece by some, it has left others balking at its violence. For the actor Hugh Grant, the experience of watching at his local London cinema last week was “unendurable”, but not because of Todd Phillips’s menacing vision as director.

Grant felt high noise levels in the auditorium had made his trip to see Joker at the Vue in Fulham “pointless”, he complained on Twitter, adding: “The joke was on us”. “Am I old or is the cinema MUCH TOO LOUD?” the film star asked.

Publicists for Vue’s cinema complexes were quick to respond, assuring him that sound settings are “regularly checked to ensure they comply with health and safety standards”, and promising to take up his case. Grant said he was grateful, but wondered how they could help unless they knew where he had seen the film.

The incident has provoked an outpouring of accounts of aural pain at other venues. Many filmgoers say they believe sound levels have been crawling up the decibel scale, and not just for the adverts and trailers. Several sufferers also argued that a lack of balanced settings in an auditorium can create an unpleasant booming sensation.

“I can’t watch mine, or any films, in commercial cinemas for this reason! It’s like a restaurant adding too much salt in the food,” agreed one producer.

Prompted by similar concerns, members of the British Tinnitus Association, who work to prevent hearing damage, have launched a survey on noise levels in public spaces. They want to focus on louder noises, rather than on the separate issue of consistent background sound pollution.

Dolby, the leading sound system, has traditionally set the “fader”, or volume control, at number seven, although some rival systems calibrate levels differently. This standard setting is the equivalent of 85 decibels, a level regarded as safe to hear over two or three hours.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hugh Grant. Photograph: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

But according to the association’s spokeswoman, Nic Wray, the best medical advice now suggests a level closer to 80 decibels is safer. “And for every three-decibel rise in the level, you should really halve the time of exposure,” she told the Observer.

A new state-of-the-art Dolby Odeon cinema opened last month in the Trafford Centre in Manchester with much fanfare. It hopes to attract custom with what it bills as “an immersive environment and an unrivalled cinematic experience”, so it is clear that getting the sound right is an expensive imperative.

Both the size of the room and the size of the audience alter the experience of sound, leading some film fans to suggest that large cinema chains are failing to suit the noise level to the acoustic in smaller screening rooms. The deliberate technical “compression” of the noise on a soundtrack also causes issues for people with impaired hearing. Other customers grumble that the common advice to report any discomfort to ushers presents a challenge when staff are sparse on the ground.

A spokesperson for Dolby said that all sound system formats should comply with industry standards, but that each cinema should still “integrate and calibrate” its settings.

“While a scene may be perceived as loud, these are brief moments and well within the industry standards. An area that can be confused with loudness is when we feel discomfort: this could be loudness or distortion. Distortion is when a sound system was not appropriate for the size of room it is installed in and at peaks causes distortion, which is objectionable to a listener.”

And it turns out that Grant may be right: it does also have something to do with age. The Dolby expert explained that ageing affects the intelligibility of dialogue and makes us more sensitive to sound.

Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Association, the trade body that represents most British cinema operators, said that “the increasing sophistication of cinema sound” was at the heart of the matter, as it meant the “dynamic range” of the built-in systems had grown.

“Although this has had no effect on the average sound levels, it has required cinemas to work with equipment manufacturers to ensure that the standard settings on systems keep maximum sound levels within acceptable parameters. These are typically recalibrated on a weekly basis.”

Regulatory controls ensure that British cinemas abide by the provisions of the Noise at Work regulations 2005, said Clapp. These are formulated to govern noise for any employee over a working day and so are also considered safe for most cinemagoers.

Average sound levels of 85 decibels, coupled with limits on the maximum permitted sound levels, “are well below those likely to pose any health risk to customers,” he said.