MANILA, Philippines — It is disturbing to imagine a world without movie theaters, much like it is impossible to imagine a world without home cooking.

The former is a world where movie houses will be supplanted by home or even personal cinemas; the latter is one where fastfood restaurants like McDonald’s finally complete their quest for total world domination in the realm of food—the death of local cuisine and vegetarianism as we know it. It may well be that it is only a matter of time before either (or both) happens; in the end, the very real possibility exists that both will die in the next couple of decades.

But the possibility that movie theaters will die out seems to me a more likely possibility.

I don’t think we will ever reach that point in our lifetime when old favorites like adobo or paksiw will die out because we will begin to eschew them for uniformly bland burgers, nuggets and fries, though it might be worth pointing out that that is exactly the appeal of McDo. For the foreseeable future, home cuisine will always be the cheaper and tastier alternative to eating at fast food restaurants.

Not so with movies: a pirated DVD seems to me the rationally more preferable alternative to cinemas. To say piracy is rampant all over the world is probably an understatement, and here in our country, laws are so poorly enforced that it is practically legitimate.

Thanks to advances in technology, which is itself to thank for the rapid spread of pirated goods, the possibility of a home or even personal theater exists even today, when we can easily download movies to our phones and touch pads and watch them at our leisure.

In fact, perhaps the most amazing thing about movie theaters is that they are still alive and turning a profit at all. Consider, for example, a highly anticipated movie like “Happy Feet 2” or “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.” The cost to watch it in a movie theater: around P120 to 250 (depending on where you watch, around P100 more if you want it in 3D), plus food and parking or commute expenses. Not to mention the time spent traveling from home to mall.

On the other hand, the cost to watch it at your own place: around 0 to P70, and only then if you’re not friends with kuya or ate who sells DVDs at Metrowalk or Circle C. Your parking and commute expenses are there, but you can always cook corned beef or pancit canton at home for eating while you watch. You could probably ask your parents to shoulder the 1.5L Coke if you share. It’s free if you’re willing to be proactive, download a torrent, and wait a couple of hours or days. Not to mention you can lie down and laugh as loudly as you want.

The effect of such a phenomenon is making itself felt: fewer people today watch movies in cinemas, and many of us would rather go to our local pirate and be a pirate as well. I suspect that it might be different if piracy laws were better formulated and strictly enforced, and the police did more than just the occasional televised raid, but that is a different story.

Yet some of us continue to watch movies at movie theaters, and it doesn’t seem to make rational sense: is it a natural human fascination for big screens? Is it the reclining chairs?

The popcorn, perhaps? Or is it the ‘experience’ which is worth the additional one or two hundred pesos we fork out?

At the bottom of it, I suspect that it’s simply a matter of preference, as arbitrary as one’s choice of clothing or music. Some of us like to watch movies alone in the comfort of our own beds; others, me included, are fascinated with big screens, or like to recline on chairs, or like sharing the experience of watching a movie with the people we love and, in some limited way, the other people in the cinema. Or all of the above.

I normally keep track of the movies I watch by keeping the tickets in my wallet, and recently I was reviewing how many movies I watched on the big screen last year. I watched less than 10 times.

For someone who likes to go to the cinema a lot, that is kind of sad, and it must account for why I was so eager to see Sherlock Holmes 2 on cinema last Monday night, despite the busy week ahead. As MasterCard would have it, ticket:P200. Fries and softdrinks: P120. Parking: P40. The experience: priceless. Or at least, better than watching it at home.