Families Create Home Movie Theaters

ByABC News via logo
September 15, 2006, 11:30 AM

Sept. 16, 2006 — -- There was a time when more people actually left their homes and went to the movie theater with their family and friends to watch a film.

But with movies coming out on DVD more quickly than ever and the quality of home entertainment systems improving so much, many American families are simply saying goodbye to their traditional living rooms and creating their own "media rooms."

Peter Schlessel said he created one in his house so his kids would want to hang out at home. With the room's big screen and drop-down curtains, the family's lifestyle is about movies, sports and games.

"We don't want to be like our parents and have a formal living room," Schlessel said. "That didn't seem to fit our lifestyle."

The Schlessels gear carries a price tag of more than $50,000, about mid-range, but families can build budget media rooms for less than $5,000.

"You can start with something [costing] as little as $200 for a surround sound system all the way up to -- sky's the limit," said Best Buy's Fred Shahadi.

If money is not an issue, families can try what Marc and Sharon Hagle did in their Winter Park, Fla., home.

The Hagles' media room "just offers a lot of comfort," Marc Hagle said. "We can just settle down into the chairs and cuddle in -- in either one or both -- and it's just a luxury."

The room includes an 84-square-foot projection screen that also retracts to reveal a rear projection flat screen and two plasma screens.