A long time ago a theater was a special place to go with elegant settings, and respect among theater attendees that it indeed was a special event. Theaters now deliver the best picture quality and sound they ever have, but the experience is about as great as shopping for groceries.

It comes as no shock that theaters are struggling to keep attendance and make money. With how advanced home theaters have become, it’s easy to create a much better movie experience at home.

Bye Bye
One could argue that theaters will eventually just go away. Especially with affordable projectors offering immense screen sizes for home theater enthusiasts willing to go that route. Also, a home release of a movie can often make the same if not more than the theatrical release.

There’s been much talk of how to get people back into the movie theater via gimmicks such as 3-D movies (think glasses), a higher resolution picture, and even better sound. 3-D movies, while really cool, are simply a gimmick. Just like anything, after awhile, the newness and intrigue of the gimmick wears off, and in the end it still all comes down to the quality the movie experience.

A great movie theater experience comes down to five things

1. Great picture and sound
2. Behavior of movie goers
3. Quality of the content
4. Elegance of the experience
5. Value

Great Picture and Sound
This has to be the first criterion simply because without it, everything else doesn’t matter. This may sound obvious enough, but I’ve been at enough multiplexes to know that when the sound is low or just not right, it throws off the movie.

A great picture is one that can be taken for granted, just looks good, and is gigantic.  Many theaters have smaller sub theaters and the size usually just isn’t big enough. Size matters, and the bigger the screen is the more grand the presentation. All to often I’ve also seen issues with picture formatting or a picture that goes multiple feet off the screen.  All that adds up to feel like something that’s thrown together without attention to detail, nor concern for the customer experience.

Behavior of Movie Goers
Many theaters do get the picture and sound perfect, but the people in the theater can easily ruin the movie. Movie theaters need to set “Rules of Etiquette” as to the behavior expected of their patrons, and act on those patrons that ruin the movie for everyone else. There should be no tolerance for people that talk, speak on the phone, let their kids run amok, or use laser pointers.

While the theaters can blame the patrons entirely as they’re the ones who don’t behave, enforcement of the “Rules of Etiquette” could dramatically reduce patron-based annoyances. Why let one or two people ruin the movie for the other 400 people in the theater?

Bad patrons reflect badly on the theaters themselves, and when a customer has a consistently bad experience, they’ll just stop going or begin to police the movies themselves. With self-policing, I’m reminded of opening night at Star Wars Episode I, right as the lights dimmed some idiot threw up a laser-dot on the screen when somebody from the back kindly yelled “KNOCK THAT $#!T OFF!!!” There was no laser pointing from that point on.

People with kids need some courtesy as well. It’s understandable when a young kid just starts screaming, but a parent should abruptly leave the theater with the kid. People are acting like they do at home, oblivious to the fact that their screaming children are ruining the movie for everyone else. Oh, and many a time I’ve seen midnight movies and “R” rated movies with 2-5 year old kids running around. WTF.

Movie theaters can fix the kid issue by having designated show times where nobody under 10 is allowed, or designated times where little kids are allowed.

In most cases it simply comes down to enforcing “Rules of Etiquette” by the movie theaters.

Quality of the Content
This is a biggie, but it has to be third in the list since the first two items can ruin any content no matter how good it is. Truly great movies are few and far between. Many movies are just being over-hyped or have too many sequels (man did Spider-Man 3 suck!).

You can hype a movie and ram a lot of people in opening weekend, but if it’s a crappy movie, word will spread quickly thus hitting theaters hard the following week and damaging home release sales.

This really isn’t something theaters can fix at all. This is something only consumers can fix. How many 3D animated movies are released, and how many actually live up to the quality of a Pixar production? Few, very few, but every time a studio throws a 3D talking animal up on screen anyone with kids mobs the theater. I still haven’t heard a positive review from anyone that saw Happy Feet. In fact, I got my copy for free as someone else who got it for free didn’t even want to keep the DVD.

I give credit to my own revelation that most 3D animated movies are quickly spun out garbage to Madagascar. I simply didn’t care about the characters at all. Unlike Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, or Toy Story (essentially anything Pixar) wherein the stories are good to great with robust character development while being entertaining to children and adults alike.

Put simply, quality of the content is going to depend on movie studios turning down bad ideas, and consumers voting with their dollar.

Elegance of the Experience
Theaters should hearken back to the golden age of the movie palace to further enhance the customer’s perception of the quality of the movie going experience. Theaters have become cookie cutter designs with low quality mass-market materials aimed at being just good enough to push the cattle through.

The only major improvement made in design over the last 15 years has been the stadium seating. The comfort of the seats is still debatable, and quality of the surfaces is low. Much better can be done and I’ve experienced it.

At The Royal George in Chicago I saw standup comic Eddie Izzard. The lobby was simple to trashy, but inside was decently nice with a few upscale appointments. The seats looked like the old style theater seats of the past, with only mid level seat backs. The cushions were a velvety purple, and before I sat down I remembered thinking that these would not be comfortable at all. In fact, they proved to be the best theater seats I’ve ever experienced! The cushions were simply perfect, and I never once ever thought about the seat during the 2-hour show. The best stuff is sometimes the things that don’t draw your attention.

Making the movie going experience special again could not only bring patrons back, but also make them willing to spend a little more for those extras.

Value
This is where theaters fail miserably. It’s generally understood that theaters have little in their power to bring down the ticket price as they mainly make money only at concessions, but theaters forgot that they have to make the experience of value to the customer.

A couple can easily spend $50-$80 on dinner and a movie. For a family, a movie alone can easily run $60-$100. With the quality of service so low, and all of the above issues listed, it’s easy to see why many have given up on the movies as the value is not there.

During the average lifespan HDTV consumers can watch 1000s of movies and 1000s of hours of HD content, and save a ton of money on the way without dealing with the headaches associated with movie theaters.

Summary
It’s the reasons detailed above that make a home theater experience so much better than a movie theater. Can movie theaters catch on? It remains to be seen, but let’s hope so. In the meantime theater owners now have to contend with the fact that a home theater offers a much better movie experience, and theater owners need to prove why they should exist.