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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 2801549" data-attributes="member: 2205">That will only be necessary when your living room is as big (and has the same acoustics) as a movie theater.  It's not that hard (or expensive) to get a theater quality viewing experience off of home equipment.  5.1 digital audio systems are really cheap; less than $150 at the low end, and hi-def projector TVs are only a couple hundred bucks too.  With that, you can already have proportionally a better viewing/sound experience than most theaters.  Plus, it's at home.That's a great theory, but I've never seen more than a handful of those innovations.  And I live in a very large metropolitan area which would have them if they were really the direction the theater industry were going.  Frankly, I really doubt it; theater ticket sales are way down, and what you're talking about is not cheap.  Where's the revenue supposed to come from that funds these extra costs?  Where's the profit in it?  Not to mention the fact that do those things really outweigh the convenience of watching movies at home?  Who cares about "catered" theaters with ushers and waiters and live entertainment when you can just order a pizza, throw some popcorn in the microwave, lay on the couch and watch movies at home in your underwear with the same visual/sound quality (if not better), spend tons less money (especially if you subscribe to Netflix, or the Blockbuster equivalent, or whatever), pause it whenever you need to take a leak or get a drink, etc.?  I mean, where's your data that these changes are going to really be widely adopted?  Or if they are that it will make any difference?  'Coz I can point out that I've never seen a theater that does what you claim; the closest we've got are the Emagine theaters where you can get cardboard pizzas in addition to popcorn and nachos, and there's a bar--otherwise, the theatrical experience is strictly conventional.  And, ticket sales are down 7% from this same point last year--and last year was a doom and gloom year for the industry too.I mean, I like the theater experience.  My wife and I literally get flack from our friends because we see so many movies in theaters, but that's what we do.  I'm a fan of the theatrical experience.  But even I'm bearish on the theatrical industry.  I think it's got to radically restructure what it does and shrink if it wants to survive at all; I expect we'll move to a more blockbuster direct-to-video approach at some point, and theaters will cater to niche markets in the future.</blockquote>

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