For most of the 20th century, the paradigm looked like this: The television set was a piece of furniture — a box that sat in your living room, big and a little ugly, and cozy, too. It was the electric hearth everyone gathered around, and the shows you watched on it were comfort food. The movie theater, by contrast, was a palace, a church, a house of worship. The audience, united in holy silence, looked up at the screen to gaze at stars who were like oversized gods. The movies could be comfort food, too, but at their best they were greater than that. They took the rows of worshipers and swept them up into a dream of what life was, and what it could be.
Source: Watching Movies on a Big Screen Is Still Magical | Variety