In the early 1980s, when George Lucas and his team were developing Return of the Jedi, they took notice of how sound would be all over the place when you normally watch a movie. There was no control or direction over where the sound can be when you watch a movie. So for the film, the Skywalker Sound team introduced a new way to listen: a revolutionary new sound system that would provide the clearest audio experience at the time. Movie theaters started requesting the sound system to be implemented into their theaters and by the time Return of the Jedi was released... THX
(named after Lucas' feature-film directorial debut THX 1138) was born.
Since then, many would see (and hear) THX in many productions and theaters, and more formats would be introduced, most notably home video. In 2016, the company was acquired by Razer, Inc. and since then still dedicates itself to providing the best audio experience.
Oh yeah, there's one other thing this company is known for: the infamous "Deep Note" that showed off how sound can really sound... and gained a reputation for its loudness even after over 40 years.
Tropes associated with THX:
- What Could Have Been: THX teamed up with DreamWorks Animation to create a Shrek trailer. For the longest time, it was believed that Disney was very irate about the Shrek trailer since it was originally going to be featured in theatres before Pixar's Monsters, Inc. (which was scheduled to be released on the exact same day as Shrek's DVD/VHS release) since the trailer featured characters from Pixar's then-fledging competitor. Disney themselves eventually denied this claim however, and THX stated that they willingly pulled the trailer so they could avoid being associated with a specific film. Five years later (after Shrek the Third was still in production), THX uploaded the trailer onto their website.
