What compressed digital audio format is prevalent in movie soundtracks for its surround sound capabilities?

The prevalent compressed digital audio format in movie soundtracks, particularly recognized for its surround sound capabilities, is AC-3. This format, also known as Dolby Digital, is widely used in cinema and home theater setups for delivering high-quality audio that supports multiple channels. It encodes audio in a way that allows for the transmission of multiple audio tracks, enhancing the immersive experience of films by providing discrete audio channels for various speakers in a surround sound system.

AC-3 is specifically designed to handle the complexities of movie audio, such as dialogue clarity, sound effects, and music, in a coherent surround sound environment. This makes it the industry standard for DVD and Blu-ray audio tracks, as well as streaming platforms, ensuring a rich auditory experience that faithfully represents the director's artistic intentions in film audio mixing.