DVD or Cinema

Todd: OK, Mark, I thought we would have a mock-debate.

Mark: OK, sounds good. What are we debating?

Todd: We're going to debate what is better - to watch a movie on DVD or at the cinema?

Mark: OK, well I would definitely choose DVD.

Todd: OK, I would say the cinema. So you go first, why is it better on DVD?

Mark: I prefer watching movies at home because I can sit on my nice relaxing sofa. I can drink a beer. If I want to lie down on the sofa, I can lie down on the sofa. So in the cinema, you always get somebody at the side of you and they're very noisy eating popcorn or shouting and I can't focus on the movie.

Todd: See, actually, I would agree that's the opposite. When you watch a movie at home. You have family members that interrupt you. The telephone rings. There's always things going on. Where in a movie, usually people are pretty quiet and you can just sit and enjoy the movie.

Mark: Yeah, but you can tell your family members, do not disturb and switch the telephone off and then you can watch it. Also, I think recently with the quality of the TV's, it's a lot better now to watch at home, for example you've got the plasma screen TV with the surround sound. It's just like being in the movie theater.

Todd: Yeah, I don't know. There's something about - I like to a movie, and when you watch a movie at the cinema, you get the bigger screen. Usually nowadays the cinemas have higher quality sound. You've got your popcorn, your hot dog. It's kind of a sense of excitement. When you sit down to watch a movie at home there's not a sense of excitement.

Mark: Right, well, I agree that the movie theater has improved. For example recently they've got the beautiful comfortable chair. I live in Japan now, and in Japan you can get a beer at the movie theater. Can you get a beer in America?

Todd: No, I don't think so.

Mark: No, you can't in England as well. I like to drink a beer when I'm watching a movie. So the movie theater has improved, but you have to go to the theater. What happens if it's raining, you don't want to go. If it's snowing, you don't want to go. Whereas at home, now you don't need to the DVD store. You can get them via your TV, right. Just press the magic button.

Todd: True. So the question is, do you think there will even be cinemas is say twenty years, thirty years?

Mark: Well, I've noticed in the last ten years, that the small cinemas in the cities have usually closed, and they're moving out of town to the big multiplexes.

Todd: Right.

Mark: So the number of cinemas has reduced in the past ten years, I think, and it will probably continue to do that. We got a home cinema now. And people are buying huge screen TV's or they are getting all the latest technology in their home. It's cheap enough to buy now, so I'd probably say that cinemas will be no longer in about then years.

Todd: Ten years!

Mark: Yeah.

Todd: Well, I hope they don't go away too fast cause I still like them.