It might be location, but there are cinemas here that show older releases for reduced prices, and if you matinee up, you can still get in for a pretty reasonable $6. So there are options depending on where you live.

I have to agree though, as much technology as home entertainment, it still doesn’t beat the movie going experience.

Just as long as there’s no kids around.

Cinemas are shockingly expensive these days, particularly if you’re old enough to remember “dollar theatres” and two dollars matinees. I suspect it’s due to the proliferation of in-home entertainment. Considering the genesis of DVR’s, the increasing ease of renting movies (online, via the tele, via the post) and the increasing *quality* of in-home entertainment (which can now give you high definition, whilst I believe that most cinemas are still displaying 35 mm film ) and the availability of inexpensive, quality surround audio. And watching a movie every night isn’t some birthright; when I was growing up going to the cinema was quite the occasion; a chance for some really high-value entertainment beyond what was available on tv (which for us was only free-to-air). Now, it’s movies all the time. Movies on tape, on disc, on the computer, over the DVR …. Hollywood has grown quickly by improving their distribution channels and now people are watching movies *everywhere*; at home, on the plane, on the trains to work.

Cinemas are rapidly being obsolesced if you ask me. Shame, I say. I remember growing up and experiencing “Dolby” for the first time and being in awe as sounds shifted from one side of the cinema to the other, from front to back. I remember arriving early to claim those precious seats right in the middle of the right-in-the-middle row. Somehow watching at home doesn’t give me the same thrill.

Still, I silently curse to myself everytime I take the family to the cinema. It *is* bloody awful expensive. But I still enjoy it more than watching at home despite my nice home theatre.