Wicked | Universal reportedly sent a note with a minimum volume request for cinemas

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Wondered why Wicked might be on the loud side at your local cinema? Turns out thereā€™s been a ā€˜minimum volumeā€™ request.


It’s not particularly unusual for a filmmaker to send a note to cinema projectionists outlining some parameters for how they want their films exhibited. What I hadn’t appreciated, but probably should have guessed, is that there’s also sometimes a minimum volume requirement for a film requested by a studio as well.

The modern cinema is not a quiet place really, with most studio films set to eardrum-bashing levels of volume. But listening to Kermode & Mayo’s Take’s recent podcast episode, and cinemas are getting specific-ish requests it seems that are at least trying to bend their arm on the matter.

There’s been some dispute on the programme in recent weeks as to whether a modern cinema has autonomy over whether its staff can turn the volume up and down in a screening. They do, although one cinema manager had claimed they couldn’t.

Still, it’s a correspondent in the 9th January episode of the show who sheds more light. Or sound.

He says he’s a cinema manager, who took delivery of a note from Universal, requesting that screenings of Wicked were set at a volume level of ‘7’. It sounds a tiny bit Spinal Tap-y, and I can’t give you a decibel level that ‘7’ refers to.

Still, to get to the specifics.

“We usually play the ads at one level, the trailers at a slightly higher level, and the film at a slightly higher level above that”, the letter went. The manager concerned explains this is then fairly standard across most films, as there’s not the time and staff resource to test each movie and advert individually each week, to determine the right volume for the right screen.

Still, “sometimes the studio will send a projectionist note along to say that a film should be played at a certain level”.

The cinema concerned has a usual volume of 5.5 for a film, “but Universal wanted Wicked played at 7.0 minimum. This was too loud for our site so we went for 6.0. If some cinemas are taking these requests at face value, this could cause some films to be too loud for the screens they’re playing in”.

The correspondent points out that the notes are presumably aimed more at multiplexes, rather than small independents where “the speakers in a screen are nearer your head”. It also sounds like they have a bit of damned if you do, damned if you don’t to contend with, with occasional complaints from the same screening that the sound was too low, and the sound was too high.

Still, if your eardrums were particularly shattered by Wicked, then at least we have a potential reason why. It seems that the volume was requested to be on the high side, and the majority of sites, I’d imagine, duly complied.

It still doesnā€™t explain people singing along to the film at non-singalong screenings, thoughā€¦

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