The body snatchers

Filed in archive Home Theater on August 21, 2007

Australia's Sydney Morning Herald reports that home theaters are stealing cinema audiences. The article "The body snatchers" reports that many Australian's are staying at home and watching movies in home theaters rather than pushing their way through crowds to go and see movies in their nearest multiplex.

This is not a new idea. Back in 2005 The Big Picture reported in the article "Why is Movie Attendance Declining?" that movie attendance has been declining due to:

•  Social factors eroding audiences, such as cell phones, computer games and other technological entertainment devices


•  Higher quality experience elsewhere - home theaters


•  Declining quality of mainstream movies


•  Easily available content alternatives - such as Netflix, Amazon


•  Price of going to the movies


•  Aging baby boomers simply going out less

AND then there is Buzzle.com's "The Decline of the Movie Theater", and a dozen or so other references we could display.

In summary we need to say that the decline of theater audiences is possibly not only the fact that home theaters are a good alternative, there are a host of reasons, some of which have to do with the rise of computer games, home theaters, cell phone addiction and communication, and other social reasons to do with an aging population.

So what do we gather from all of this? One thing we should conclude is that movies will be distributed in a variety of ways in the future and not just through public movie theaters. Soon we might see the distribution of movies direct to your home theater via broadband.

However, history tells us that public theaters are going to stay in one shape or another. What can a public theater do that we can never do in the home theater? Public theaters will become places where an audience can experience a vicarious, energy of the audience, and new ways of experiencing movies through motion chairs, or through other automated ways of engaging audiences.