Movie theaters made sense when televisions were awful and people needed an air-conditioned escape from summer heat. A modern home is technologically comparable and environmentally superior to a theater. Additionally, theater technology is now well beyond the comprehension or appreciation most theater managers. I've gotten headaches from blown woofers and glitch-filled digital audio streams. Complaints typically result in blank stares.
The only theaters I go to these days are those showing third-run movies while serving pizza, burgers, and beer. :-)
I have to strongly disagree. The experience of watching a film in a movie theater is completely different than watching it at home, even with a high end home theater setup.
First of all, the vast majority of people can't even come close to replicate this "technological experience" of movie theater. The huge screen as well as the audio system absolutely do change how you experience a film, be it Avatar or 2001 or Metropolis (the last two of which I've only recently seen for the first time on the big screen, and even though I have a pretty huge TV, this was an entirely different experience).
But aside from the technology involved, a movie theater is a completely different environment than your living room, it is designed to keep you entirely focused. I find I am much more immersed in a movie when I see it in the cinema. Also, some movies are just made to be watched as part of a larger audience (e.g. I can't imagine I'd find Borat even remotely as funny as I did when I watched it in a small theater packed with a cheering crowd).
On a somewhat more esoteric note, I seem to remember a study that showed rear-projection (like on a TV) had a different impact on the brain than front-projection (like on a movie screen). I can't find anything about this now and it might've been complete bogus, but maybe someone else knows something about this...
I cannot agree; far too often, there's someone having a phone conversation or otherwise engaging in completely unrelated chat with their friends at my local cinema. There's nothing you can do about it. That's in addition to the cinema having the volume set too high, and having to pay extra to reserve seats so you can avoid the 25 minutes of ads and trailers that come up before the feature.
a movie theater is a completely different environment than your living room
This is true - my living room doesn't have somebody eating out of a loudly crackling popcorn bag, people talking to each other a few seats away, a dude behind me who accidentally dunts the seat every now and then when he crosses and uncrosses his legs, a dim slightly out-of-focus picture with the top chopped off because the projector hasn't been set up properly, or a woman updating facebook on her smartphone in my eyeshot every few minutes+.
Truly magical.
+okay, admittedly that's a distillation of annoying Cinema crap.
First of all, the vast majority of people can't even come close to replicate this "technological experience" of movie theater
Massively disagree. The huge screen is really not of great importance. Given a good-enough screen, quality audio is what sends the experience over the edge. I picked up fantastic NHT speakers and a variety of amplifiers for well under $1k. Surround sound adds nothing, while a center channel is crucial for dialog.
As for the environment, set your living room up however you please. I've never had anyone munching popcorn and nachos (!), talking to the characters, jingling their jewelery, or texting in my living room.
I agree about Borat, though a room of friends would have given the same experience.
3D movies are also awful, stressing your eyes and even producing headaches. It's also awful for people used to subtitles. In my country it's common practice for movies to be aired in English with subtitles. I couldn't think of a worse combination than subtitles and 3D projection - and movie theaters will rather prefer dubbed audio tracks in the future, which will totally ruin movies for me.
Digital projectors allow for super-sharp images, in combination with a short depth-of-field (for cool bokehs) it's all you need for 3D effects without giving you nausea, not to mention the images are pseudo-3D at best. To make matters worse, I went to the latest Pirates of the Caribbean and the 2D option wasn't available.
To paraphrase other people - 3D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension; and it's getting shoved on people's throats, even if they don't like it.
I don't think 3D is entirely useless, it's just not used to its full potential in my mind. Explosions, space battles and what-have-you are nice and all, but when I saw Avatar the one scene that really blew me away was just a bunch of people sitting around and talking, with no camera movement whatsoever. It felt so real and intense.
I want to see some serious drama shot in 3D, I want to see the technology serve story and character.
(And yes, I am anxiously awaiting the local release of Werner Herzog's 3D cave documentary...)
The only theaters I go to these days are those showing third-run movies while serving pizza, burgers, and beer. :-)