Hollywood wants its movie trailers to tickle, tease and dazzle you, not give you headaches. That's why even though previews of coming attractions are growing more visually innovative, the film industry is lowering their volume to stem a rising crescendo of complaints.
Take the crowd one recent evening watching trailers at the AMC Promenade 16 in Woodland Hills. "They were shouting out . . , 'Turn the sound down! It's too loud!' " said Darryl Anka, 47, a production company co-owner who sees a couple of movies a week. "Sometimes, if I didn't think the trailers were going to end in a couple of minutes, I'd complain too, but I know they're going to be done soon, so I sit there and take it."
How loud is too loud? Some trailers tested last summer by Hollywood audio engineers yielded one that averaged a skull-drubbing 92 decibels over its entire 2 1/2-minute run, buffeting audiences with more sound intensity than they'd get riding the New York subway, according to noise experts.
But when theater employees dutifully comply with customers' demands to lower the sound during the trailers, more complaints follow when the lower-decibel feature starts.
"They play it [the main feature] so low, I have to ask, 'What did he say? What was that line?' " said Chuck Bond, 65, of Newport Beach.
Take heart: The Trailer Audio Standards Assn. feels your pain. Earlier this spring the association--a panel representing studios, cinema audio companies and exhibitors--unveiled new controls that will, in effect, turn down the loudest trailers by about one-third. The new rules take effect June 1, but some studios have already implemented them.
The regulations will be enforced by the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which screens 500 or more trailers a year to see if they can run the familiar green leader showing that the preview is approved for all audiences. Trailers can't show such things as nudity, shootings or spattering blood. Now, they can't be too loud.
Turning down the volume means trailer producers will have to work harder to make an impression, especially among the coveted teen audience, which is flocking to movies in record numbers. The MPAA reports that last year 234 million tickets were sold to 12- to 17-year-olds, a leap of 28.4% over 1997. That's the crowd that expects previews to be sharp, fast and loud.
