I'm American and watch movies with subtitles. The audio balance is generally fucked up and there's some weird fuzziness to the sound or people suddenly start whispering only to have massive explosions and metal being torn apart 5 seconds later. (Yes, I know people say to adjust audio balance and settings but it doesn't fix the problem.) It's impossible to follow the dialogue otherwise.
I'm fine with watching TV without subtitles because usually it's made with the assumption that people actually want to hear the dialogue.
My wife and I both constantly complain about the voice level in movies and TV. We've even hooked up a nice stereo system and let it calibrate itself, only to find out that we had to crank the center speaker up to hear them properly. And for crappy audio that isn't properly stereo, that still doesn't help because too much goes through the center speaker.
I'd say the main difference for me is that I have no problem whatsoever understanding movies in my native language. I love watching movies and it is quite frustrating for me not being able to get the dialogue as clearly as I get it in my native language.
I think it’s just the way American movies are produced. 80s and 90s movies are no problem for me. Starting around the 2000s I can’t pick up half of what they say. I have American friends who use subtitles for the same reason.
I have no trouble listening to dialogue in movies in my second language, so I think comprehension isn’t the problem.
I never have problem hearing what is said, but I continually have to turn music down! It's almost normal to have a scene with quiet talking, then scene with really loud music, then quiet talking.
So I guess for people who don't adjust the volume throughout, either the music is way too loud or the dialogue is often inaudible. I don't get why music in movies is so often so relatively loud. Not sure if it's just US movies or not.
But mostly I watch movies/series with subtitles, in other languages than English - as a side benefit, don't even have to turn it up when planes go over!
You are not alone. I have a friend who has the same issue with French. I don't. I'm not sure what the root cause is, maybe our brains are wired differently. Amd he's invested a ton more time in learning it.
I'm fine with watching TV without subtitles because usually it's made with the assumption that people actually want to hear the dialogue.