1-Cost: seeing a movie in the theatre often costs as much as owning it on DVD
2-Speed: DVDs come out 3-4 months after the theatre debut, which sometimes equals my "when I get around to it" delay for seeing a movie
3-Availability: art houses are closing down, making it harder to see smaller films except on DVD (many smaller films only play at festivals, or in LA and NY, but on DVD they are easy to see)
4-Scheduling: DVDs allow people to time-shift entertainment to their schedule, not vice-versa
5-Variety: Netflix's giant selection! And, if they don't have it, Green Cine's.
6-Content: DVDs come out in widescreen, with commentary, subtitles, director's cuts, unrated versions, and extras -- even if you do see a film at a theater, if it's good you need to see it on DVD anyway
7-Commercials: I can't believe I forgot to include this! "Some of this stuff is extremely entertaining" --Matthew Kearney, President, Cinema Advertising Council; future resident of 1st circle of Hell
8-"Preshow Entertainment" [sic]: I can't believe I forgot to include this too! I'd pay not to be subjected to this, but if I go to a theater, I pay to be subjected to this.
As people build home theaters, "going to the movies" is left more and more to the great unwashed, the Fans of Bruckheimer. I can count the number of movies I saw in the theater this year on my fingers.
Since I am seeing DVDs, I will still do my list for 2004, but all those winter release movies will have to wait 3 months.
A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake A Very Long Engagement (7.8) Being Julia (6.4) Bright Leaves (Ross McElwee) Carandiru (7.2) Closer (6.8) Collateral (7.0) Dogville (7.3 but Lars von Trier warning) Friday Night Lights (7.4) Goodbye Dragon Inn (precocious critics' favorite) Guerrilla: The Taking Of Patty Hearst Hellboy (7.0) Hotel Rwanda House of Flying Daggers (7.8) Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (7.8) Kitchen Stories (Salmer fra kjøkkenet) (7.9) Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (7.3) Moolaadé My Name is David (dir. by Paul Feig!) Osama (8.3) Primer (?) Shrek 2 (7.9) Since Otar Left (8.8) Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (8.8) Superstar in a Housedress (100% tomatometer) Team America: World Police (6.5) The Corporation (7.0) The Motorcycle Diaries (8.3) The Return (8.4) The Saddest Music in the World (8.9) The Sea Inside (7.6) The Story of the Weeping Camel (7.8) The United States of Leland (3.6 - ouch! maybe not) The Yes Men (7.2) To Be and To Have (Être et avoir) Vera Drake (8.6) We Don't Live Here Anymore (6.3 - ouch!) Word Wars (the Scrabble movie)
coming soon! (* means I attached it to a previous year's top ten list)