Millions more Americans are staying home to go to the theater these days and are spending major bucks on televisions, electronics, furniture and doodads to reproduce the experience of a real movie theater in their homes. (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techreviews/2004-01-02-home-theaters_x.htm)

It's more than just cocooning or ultimately saving money over time, I'm sick of dealing with idiots who go to the theatre. People who have to talk constantly throughout the movie whether it's related or not, people who eat too loudly, people who bring young kids or babies to movies that aren't suitable, getting crappy seats, the picture being out of focus, the sound being off, watching 15 minutes of commercials and 30 minutes of trailers and outrageous food prices. And I'm paying $10-$13 for this?!

I experienced some of this yesterday at LOTR:ROTK. Other than the middle of the movie, two girls near me wouldn't shut the hell up (I presume their lips and vocal cords got tired) and someone brought a baby to the movie (get a babysitter!!!). You just want to slap these people until some common sense seeps into their skulls. Like hello, how selfish can we be?!?!

I'm going less and less to the theatre and just waiting for the DVD or DVHS release of a movie instead. If I was buying a house I would seriously consider making a theatre-like room to stick a fork in the theatre business once and for all.

Those are pretty much the reasons I built mine early last year. The major reason was that, in my opinion, the picture quality is pretty bad. The only film I really enjoyed for PQ in the recent past was Matrix Reloaded, that I saw in IMAX.

But I am enjoying my theater tremendously, now closing in on 1000 hours on my Sony HS10.

When you factor in that taking the family to a show or hiring a baby sitter for a night out at the show can cost between $50 and $100, the investment in a home theater system starts to make sense. One or two movies a week for a couple and the kids adds up to $5000 a year for movie fans. That buys a pretty decent home theater system over a few years.

It ain't cheap to have the power to pause the show... :)

... but who cares, eh ?

My wife and I went to see the latest LOTR on the Friday after it opened. As we were about to enter the theatre, about 50 highly excited grade 8 students joined the line. Presumably their teachers (none in view) had given up all attempts to keep them in order. Luckily there was a performance half-an-hour later and we opted for this. Most of the rest of the line-up bailed too.
During the later performance, the man behind us took a nap and snored gently through the quiet bits.

It's hard to lose yourself in a movie during such distractions. At home, as filper says, the power to pause the show may be expensive, but it's worth it - and getting cheaper all the time.

I wouldn't want to be in the business of showing movies these days. The writing's on the wall.