I mean my girl and I have been to the theatre at least every weekend for the last 2 months....

And we watch them at home a lot as well.

Going to the theatre is still, and always will be, the quintessential cheap night out.

On the black side of the ledger, though, I could see this move toward a landscape sans cineplices -- tell me that's not the plural, and next, you'll tell me that it's Pentagon, to rhyme with neon, even though it ends in -gon, just like Oreghin -- meaning that SuicideGirls gets "National Registry of Historic Places" citation (for its various sets that took place in movie-houses).

I regularly go to matinees. I skip the munchies (they're not good for you anyway), or if I positively must have fuel for the experience, smuggle something in. The whole thing costs me about 4 bucks, which is almost the same as a DVD rental at Hollywood Video. And as long as the rest of the audience isn't actively working to sabotage things (which they usually aren't, at matinees) and the theater crew know what they're doing, it's still the best way to watch movies. (The commercials are lame, but easy to avoid if you just don't arrive early enough to be forced to sit through them, or if you duck out and visit the restrooms during them, like I do.)

DVDs have come a lot closer to making a theater-like level of quality available at home, and I no longer worry overmuch if I wind up missing something on the big screen, but all the same I mostly use my Netflix subscription for anime and television DVDs, with the occasional foreign or older movie to round things out.

Television. Now *there* is a thing I wouldn't mind seeing replaced by DVDs and downloads.

it's not that i am against movie theaters in general, it's just that it's much more economical and convenient for me to rent from netflix and watch at home. for all the reasons listed already such as gas, high cost of tickets and snacks and you don't want to pay $10 and the film be crappy and have people talk and ringing phones and crying babies etc etc....but lest we forget that some of us *raises hand* have children that we also have to hunt down a babysitter for!

i have been to maybe one movie in a theatre in the last 2 years. it's just too expensive and inconvenient.

I rarely go to see movies in theaters these days. It has to be a film I really want to see. The reasons are mainly that movies are too expensive, there's always an asshole, and I'm sick of commercials before the main show.

Previews I'm ok with, but commercials, fuck 'em. Part of the reason I'm paying to watch a movie in the theater is so I don't have to deal with watching the goddamn commercials.

I remember when I could catch a $3.50 matinee on a Sunday. Now I can't find anything lower than $6.50.

That's the same way I feel about cable TV.

Comes H5N1, or some other serious communicable illness. That will be the end of the movie theatre. They're already struggling. They'd never cope with the serious drop in revenue that would come with fear of crowds.

Because it's a huge fucking screen and if you go to a good theater, the sound is awesome.

I'll admit to being a sucker for formulaic, "blockbuster" action/sci-fi flicks and will only go to the theater to see them. While my home theater setup is awesome, some movies just aren't the same off the big screens and super loud audio systems. That being said, all the fucking assholes talking, texting on their cell phones or bringing their fucking infants in strollers to an 11PM show (yeah, it happened) make me hate going to the theaters.

If you are willing to shell out the cash you can get a home theater that may not be quite as high quality but is infinitely more flexible. Looking at the trends in price and quality of home theater systems over the past few years, the Cineplex's won't have the quality advantage for much longer either. Heck, the price of a home theater is going to continue to drop too. Movie theaters aren't innovating and home theater is, unless the Cineplex can offer me an experience that I can't get at home I won't go out.

alas, I rarely find the time to watch movies at home.
let alone in the theater.
I actually dont have the motivation to turn the tv on when I do have the time.
I do however buy cds and listen to them as often as possible. If Im going to spend a lot of cash on a night out I would rather it be sixty dollars on a good concert.

maybe some people just find the majority of movies a waste of valuable time and money.

For 4.50 I can see a movie on UltraScreen with some of the most badass sound on the face of the planet.

There is no way I can even approach that at home, let alone get the equipment for anywhere near the price. It's not like I see a movie every day...maybe 20 a year, maybe a bit more or less depending on the quality of the movies coming out.

Yeah, it sure is better watching a movie on a small screen than a gigantic theater screen with awesome sound.


You may get ass-raped every time you go to the theater, but watching a movie on a pc is no substitute.

I don't enjoy watching anything on my computer, and movie theaters are pretty much the one opportunity I have to enjoy a completely sedentary activity while still being able to proclaim with some legitimacy that I've gone outside.

God, don't make me take up basketball. I don't have any depth perception.

I do enjoy going to the movies every now and then (I've been four times in the past two years), but it's not something I'd miss if I never did it again.