I pretty much never watch a movie on the plane … meaning I never put the headphones on and listen to it … but one cannot help to occasionally see the movie overhead. And if you fly the same airline a lot, you can start to piece together the movie without actually seeing it.
Last fall I think I was on a total of 5-6 flights that had the movie Speed Racer on it. without ever watching the movie, I pretty much know the plot. It is funny how unnecessary sound is.
That’s intentional. Most money in Hollywood movies is made in non-English language markets. So dialogue is minimized because nobody likes dubs or subtitles, and plot lines are simplified so as to make it easy to follow without much dialogue.
You couldn’t do the same thing, say, with a 1960’s Hitchcock movie. You’d be lost without the dialogue.