Seeing movies in a movie theatre is not going away, until people stop wanting to look at each other out in public. Problem with this is, once you're in the theatre, many people think that the sole point is to watch movie, others think it is to disdainfully watch the movie and talk with the people they came with. I am in the former group, which is one of the prime reasons I don't bother with the movies anymore.
The paradigm of the completely darkened box with the only light coming from the screen is a dead one. People aren't interested in focusing only on the movie, so why continue in that direction? Make movies whose express intent it to have people be able to talk during the film and, possibly, interact with it. Instead of having long rows of seats, have couches, individual seats, tables, etc. and allow people to make calls, order food and beverages, plug in lap tops, etc., all while a film is playing. If you want to focus on the film, fine, if not, do something else. This is the only way I see that they can really keep a large cross section of people continuing to come to the movies.
Hollywood however seems to be going with the hyperniche paradigm, making small budget films targeted for very specific audiences, which don't make big bucks, but as a percentage of their costs they make lots of money. That's one way to go, but one of the nice things about the movies is about how they bring people together to have a shared experience. Others have noted that because of the internet, Ipod and Tivo we can now all have content that is exclusively geared to our own personal tastes with no information that would contradict or offend our sensibilities. That is a loss for keeping a society together when it becomes so fragmented.
