Many MANY of the things that made a movie experience extra special are now replicated in a good home theater setup.
Hell a half decent dolby atmos sound bar with a sub can really deliver on the sound portion for most homes with ease. Then a TV that isn't the 'cheapest at the size I want' that most people buy at is really the next level on screens and in many cases better than what a movie theater can deliver. At least until they start making 100ft 32k OLED movie theater screens.
Back in 2008 I certainly could never duplicate the way an IMAX can make you feel like you’re moving when I had the home theater room I described a few posts up. Even with a mid range Denon receiver, the wall mounts for rear speakers and a 10” sub, the surround sound never compared with the local Ultra Screen and forget something in 3D comparing at home to an IMAX.
In my current home, the room with the TV is the living room, so I have to deal ambient light, awkward room shape, and no realistic way of mounting any speakers anywhere but the front.
For certain movies, it honestly doesn’t matter. Amelie (like I mentioned before), Bill and Ted’s excellent Adventure, Hackers, and so on, are fine in my living room at home. For movies you go to at release to marvel at the effects (and the plot frankly doesn’t matter) like Avatar, The Day After Tomorrow, and the Avengers, sign me up for the top end theater experience because in a year those effects will be less amazing, in 5 years average, and in 10 years “meh”.
It’s really the mid range excellent action / adventure movies I kind of want the home theater for, like LoTR, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, etc. that slice of old, good movies, doesn’t justify the setup though.
In basically no case would I recommend the bog standard theater experience though. If it’s worth going to the theater for, it’s worth the Dolby Ultra Thx IMAX 9000 event.