It's not the movies that got smaller, it's the home theaters that got better

SIlive.com had an interesting article on how the rise in popularity of home theaters have made a serious dent in multiplex attendance, and how theaters are now stuck in a position to reinvent themselves in order to lure people out of their living rooms and back into cinemas. With the Home Theater hardware getting better and better, not to mention cheaper and cheaper, theaters have tried everything from more comfortable seats to hosting live concerts and HD broadcasts of sporting events to gimmicks like IMAX and 3-D in an effort to get people back to theaters. In regards to the last two cinematic allures, theaters have been successful since they can charge more money for each while offering an experience that home theaters can't replicate...yet.

I have to admit, I'm torn on the whole home theater vs movie theater debate. I have a fairly decent home theater setup (I say 'fairly' as my setup pales in comparison to many of my friends): a 65" Mitsubishi DLP, a Playstation 3 that doubles as my Blu-ray player and a 5.1 surround sound setup powered by a Denon receiver capable of decoding lossless audio codecs such as DTS HD MA and Dolby TrueHD. When I play a film, it is always in focus, the sound is always nice and clear and I don't have to endure twenty minutes of forced ads and bad previews before I see a film. Perhaps the best argument for all for watching films at home is that you don't have to deal with the parade of morons around you, talking, texting or just being an obnoxious jerkass because they don't know any better. That in itself is enough to make me never want to step into another movie theater again.

But then there is the cinephile side of me who still feels that no matter how nice your home theater setup is, it will never match watching an epic along the lines of "Lawrence of Arabia", "Apocalypse Now", "Gone With the Wind", or the "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings" films on a 50 to 60-foot screen. And when it comes to comedies, a full house of people laughing along with you is always beneficial to a movie like "Borat". Then there are those filmmakers whose work I enjoy and respect so much that I feel the need to travel to the cinemas to support them. Scorsese, Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and hell, even James Cameron all produce work that should first and foremost be experienced on a big screen, no matter how large or small their film's stories are.

While the single-digit IQ, ADD-generation (that would be the age bracket of 15-29) will make every effort to ruin the big screen enjoyment (sometimes by simply being in the same theater) of myself and others, I will always find a handful or more reasons to go back into a theater. But on a majority of the films being released to theaters these days and despite the efforts of theater chains to pull people out of their homes, I find the privacy and comfort of my living room screen is more than adequate for viewing. I don't need a 50-foot screen, 3-D projection, leather seats or reserved seating in order to appreciate "The Informant!".

So what about you? Do you think its worth wasting gas, money and dealing with the public to watch movies? Or would you rather stay at home, wait a few months and rent the exact same film for one-third of the ticket price without dealing with too many hassles in order to do so?