High end home screening rooms

[Leo Enticknap]

How many people who spend the time and money to build their own screening room actually use them?

You are right in that the ones in the residences of movie industry people tend to be used quite intensively, but some others are little used status symbols.

When the covid lockdowns first happened I did several service calls to high end residence theaters, the owners of which tried to use them for the first time in years and discovered that things didn't work. We found a lot of early SDI media blocks and Series 1 projectors with lost certificates. In particular, I remember one NC800 in a residence theater that was installed in 2011, and which I found in 2020 had 27 hours of card cage time on the clock. It was in the residence of a venture capitalist who, from what I could find out online, had no significant connections to the entertainment industry.

[Dave Macaulay]

We are about to renovate a home theatre with a new SP4K and a lot more. Yes, all speakers are hidden. New Stewart screen going in. Nice setup. It was 35mm changeover with a weird video projector, that was all taken out years ago. CP2020 and DSS200 coming out.

[Allan Barnes]

Oh boy... a DOLBY DSS 200 we should talk.

[Scott Jentsch]

How many people who spend the time and money to build their own screening room actually use them?

Of course, people in show biz would. A director or producer would, definitely use his home screening room. It's part of their job. Actors and others would, too. However, unless you are in the biz, what would you really do with all that equipment and furniture? Are they the kind of people who have parties and invite people over to watch movies, all the time? Great! I'd love to do something like that!

To be honest, I think the great majority of home theaters, like this, end up sitting dark most of the time. If anything, they might get used as a glorified (and expensive) family room.

I love movies. I love projectors and computers. I love using machines to make and show movies but the point is in the doing, not in the having. I want to show movies for other people to enjoy. I want to be that guy who works, upstairs, in that dark room, behind the window, so that other people can have two hours out of their busy days to just sit back, relax, watch a movie, eat some popcorn and forget about their troubles for just a little while.

It makes me feel very sad to think that so many people build theaters in their houses, spend all that time, and waste all that money just for everything to sit there and collect dust.

A dark, empty theater is a sad and lonely place!

The same argument could be used for people who own boats, motorcycles, snowmobiles, etc. Heck, even patio furniture and outdoor grills. You could go out to eat quite a bit for the money that a decent patio set and a gas grill costs. Snowmobiles are only good for the winter months, and even then these days, not much usable snow falls in many areas that used to get more.

Media rooms like this are an extremely extreme example, of course. They are to home theater as a boat is to a super-yacht.

That said, home theaters are great things to have! (no soundbars please) I know people that use them weekly, sometimes more. It often goes in streaks, but it's always there ready to go. It's no worse than having a rec room that has arcade machines, a bar, pool tables, foosball tables, et al. You don't use it every day, but as long as you're happy with your investment of time and money, that's all that really matters.

Want to know where your teenagers are and who they spend time with? Whether it's playing movies or video games, there's no match for a large screen and impressive sound system to make an impression on otherwise hard-to-impress teens.

For the most part, my home theater setup can (relatively) outperform the average movie theater auditorium, and the best feature of all is that I'm in charge. I pick the showtime, the title, and the volume level. I always get my favorite seat and the concessions are cheaper. If something needs improvement, I know the management.

Now, give me a high level movie theater experience and I'll be there! Unfortunately, such experiences are few and far between for many people, so they can't be blamed for doing it themselves.

If anything, home theaters can increase the enjoyment of the movie-watching hobby. The hard part for many movie theaters is that people who take the time to have a home theater often are difficult people to attract to mediocre presentations. Just like my favorite restaurant can make a filet mignon that melts in my mouth and offers an experience I could never get at home, a good movie theater should be able to exceed the experience of any home theater (that doesn't reach into extremes like the OP showed).

[Randy Stankey]

I'd love to build my own theater at home but, even if I had the money, I'd still have to think about it.

I don't know... Maybe I'd build a small, single screen theater and run it as a business. I wouldn't show movies every day. Maybe only on weekends. The goal wouldn't, necessarily, be to make money but more just to cover the cost of operating and maintaining.

It would be an expensive proposition and it would take a lot of work but my goal of having a theater isn't just for myself. I get my psychological supply from working for other people to watch movies and enjoy themselves. In my mind, building a theater at home would be a waste and it would be a shame to see all that expensive equipment just moldering and collecting dust.