TVs and home theatre: how much is too much? How big is too big?

Do small TVs make good cities?

David Charlez Designs/ Landmark Photography via Houzz

I am confused. When I teach sustainable design to my Toronto Metropolitan University students, I often show them this image of a giant TV in a giant media room showing one of those giant superhero movies and ask, “Who needs this?” More than one of my students would usually raise their hand and say, “I do!”

I used to be appalled by the giant home theatre, a very expensive room serving a single purpose for a few hours per week that emits a lot of upfront carbon to build and consumes a lot of energy to run. It was my poster child for wretched excess. Trying to explain the concepts of sufficiency, satiety, or enoughness, I often quoted Dr Mari Martiskainen in Carbon Brief, who wonders:

“It’s also really important that we start to have these discussions on what is the socially acceptable level of energy consumption…What kind of society do we live in if we have people that have massive amounts of excess energy consumption [who] will then make climate change a lot worse for everyone else, versus people who can’t afford to heat their homes?”

I used to think that the big screen and the media room were symbols of civilizational decline and the death of urbanism. Years ago, after reading Adam Gopnik’s wonderful book Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York, I would write about how the park was their backyard, the restaurant was their dining room, and, of course, the cinema was their media room. People didn’t need all these functions in their homes because the city provided them, and they could get them when they needed them.

I used to say small fridges make good cities because people went out and shopped locally and were part of their community. I might have said the same thing about small TVs.

Times and circumstances change. I thought about this earlier this week while watching Dune 2 on our TV at home. We have a big screen and a little sofa in a little space that is essentially our laundry room, so the image was probably as big for me where I was sitting 6 feet away from the screen as it is in that home theatre shown above. I had the sound up high, too, but I felt something was missing- the movie was bigger than the screen and the room. I should have seen it in IMAX, which could barely frame such a big picture. Director Denis Villeneuve thought the same thing, complaining when Dune 1 came out on streaming and IMAX at the same time because of the pandemic:

“Frankly, to watch Dune on a television, the best way I can compare it is to drive a speedboat in your bathtub. For me, it’s ridiculous. It’s a movie that has been made as a tribute to the big-screen experience.”

But more and more people are watching their movies, big and little, on their big and little screens at home. Samantha Frew writes in Architizer in The Netflix Effect: How Our Love of TV Has Changed Residential Design that the combination of big screens and streaming services has changed the way we live.

“In recent years, we have seen a boom in big seating. Deep sofas with thick arms and sprung seats are everywhere. Recliners and chaises are now standard requirements for many people in their homes. The days of the perching sofa are gone. The homeowners of 2024 want to lounge, and lounge they shall. Designers are allocating much larger percentages of space for comfortable seating, seating that has been meticulously designed with ideal ergonomics to make watching television as posture-positive and kind to your behind as physically possible.”

Quế Sơn house by BOW.Atelier, Vietnam. Photograph by Quang Dam via architizer.

Most of the images in the article tell a different story; they appear to be conventional living rooms that focus on a TV instead of a fireplace, belying her argument that residential design has changed. Then Frew pitches that separate room, that home theatre.

“Theatre rooms are on the rise. From in-home cinemas, with tiered seating and popcorn machines, to drop-down projection screens and 100% black-out shades. Designers are being tasked with replicating the magical feeling of being at the movies within the comfort of our homes, and they are stepping up to the challenge in a big way.”

Silly me, arguing in vain for years that we should retain separate rooms for separate functions instead of open plans, and what do we have here? Maybe separate rooms aren’t so bad after all! As Kate Wagner noted in Citylab, “Nothing is more maddening than trying to read or watch television in the tall-ceilinged living room with someone banging pots and pans or using the food processor 10 feet away in the open kitchen.”

Since the pandemic, people are less willing to go out and share space with other people. The movie theatres are trying to step up to the challenge with bigger screens and more tech; Barry Hertz writes in the Globe and Mail:

“IMAX, Ultra AVX, D-Box, ScreenX, 4DX, and even some formats that don’t include the letter “x”: Increasingly, the choice to see a film without any supersized bells and whistles is no choice at all.”

The makers of all this equipment explain, “We’re trying to create an experience that is different from anything else that you can get on a device at home.”

It’s likely a lost cause. The screens at home keep getting bigger and better, and while streaming services are getting more expensive, most still cost less per month than a single popcorn and a pop at the movie theatre. (Way less- I just checked, and a Cineplex “Combo One” -popcorn, drink and a candy bar, costs C$21.99. Butter is extra!)

Samantha Frew concludes: “The future of television is undoubtedly bright, and it’s likely that our homes will continue to evolve to accommodate new technologies and changing viewing habits.” I am not so sure and suspect that the home theatre might well be a casualty. According to Statista, “As of March 2023, almost 70 percent of the digital video content audience in the United States was reported to watch videos on their smartphones.” Dad may invest in the home theatre setup to try and bring family and friends together, but the kids all live in their phones and rarely look at a screen bigger than that.

The big home theatre may be a short-term aberration developed for rich suburban baby boomers who don’t like to go out anymore. But the days of the multiplex are numbered as well, with fewer and fewer big movies being produced that can draw in the crowds. The future might well be the IMAX theatre on one end and the phone on the other, with not much in between.

As you can gather from this confused post, I am not sure what is happening or where we are going. Maybe we will all just lie in bed with Apple Vision Pro headsets on. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.