Take me out...to the movie theater

Big league screen
Cinema shows Red Sox in HD
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"The ticket sellers wore Red Sox caps and the usher told us to enjoy the game.

This wasn’t a typical movie night at Showcase Cinemas North. Major League Baseball has long been known as “The Show,” but that was never more true than Tuesday night when the Red Sox played the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park and NESN’s High Definition broadcast was shown on one of the big screens at the theater complex. "

I don't know if this fits in with all the stuff I usually say about a theater needing to identify it's personality and purpose, and it's probably just the fact that I love watching basketball on TV, but this is just so awesome! I can't remember if I've talked about this before, but I'm totally enchanted by the use of movie theaters as alternative venues to sports events and concerts (specifically) because they offer the benefit of making watching an event more special than putting it on TV (maybe on par with or a step up from a sports bar for games,) but can be MUCH cheaper than actually attending the event live. And the movie screen and super sound system may actually provide a BETTER viewing experience than actually going.

This reminds me that a lot of the reason I want to have a movie theater is the multimedia possibilities that you can get out of the combo of big picture/big sound/big room. My fascination with this concept is, I think, the same part of me that likes the idea of building out home theaters into commercial venues because I love home theater technology.

Maybe this only makes sense to me. But I think one of the other clearcut purposes of the modern theater should be to take all of the possibility and value of home entertainment and package it so that people can have shared experiences. Movies are the natural entry point (for me because primarily I love movies and the exhibition industry because that's what people understand) but the content shouldnt have to stop at feature length films